Rosh HaShanah 5787: The Ultimate
Once there was a man who was widely considered to have great emuna--trust in Hashem. Anytime something happened, he would say, “Hashem will provide.” It happened that there was a massive storm heading towards his town, and many people were evacuating. The man didn’t pack anything saying, “Hashem will provide.” When the rain didn’t stop and the flooding began, his neighbors said, “get in the van, we’ll get you out of here!” the man said, “don’t worry about me, Hashem will provide.” The waters rose and the man went to the second floor of his house. Soon a canoe came by, “Get in,” the people said, “we will take you to safety!” “I’m ok,” he said, “Hashem will provide!”
Soon, the water rose to the roof and a motor-boat came past, “you must get in!” they said. “Hashem will provide!” he shouted. Finally, standing on his toes on top of his chimney, a helicopter dropped a rope, “grab hold, we’re here to rescue you!” the team shouted through a megaphone. Coughing and barely able to speak, the man shouted back, “Hashem will provide and rescue me!” So the man drowned, and in Gan Eden he met Hashem face to face. Hashem asked, “do you have any questions about the mysteries of the universe?” and the man said, “well, just one… when I was drowning, why didn’t you rescue me?” Hashem replied, “I sent a van, two boats, and a helicopter, what more could you want?!”
• ~ •
This seems, at first, like a typical joke, as I have tried to begin every holiday with a little levity, but this year it also serves as the basis of what I want to share with you. After 5 years, this being my 6th Rosh Hashanah with you, I have shared many divrei Torah which I hope in some small way inspired you or moved you towards engaging with Judaism in a different way. I will speak more on my time here, and my hopes for you, on Yom Kippur. Today I will just say that it has been an honor and a privilege to be your rabbi and I look forward to 5787 as a year of growth and success for us all.
Last year I spoke about what I believe, as a Conservative Jew. This year I want to talk about what you believe, or rather, the nature of believing in general, and how your belief shapes your life in ways of which you may not be entirely aware.
Emuna, which we might translate as Faith, Believing, or Trusting, is better known to us through the word “Amein”—which really means, “I agree” or “I believe.” Whenever you say Amein, from now on, I hope you consider that you are saying “Agreed!” or “I believe it!” What does it mean, at a base level, to believe in something? Or to have faith?
Christian Theologian Paul Tillich, in his short work Dynamics of Faith, distinguishes between faith and belief. “Faith,” Tillich says, is “the state of being ultimately concerned.” Ultimately concerned doesn’t necessarily mean you spend every minute of every day exclusively thinking, talking about, or working for that thing—but rather (at the risk of incredibly oversimplifying), when you must choose one thing over another, you chose the ultimate concern over other things. Tillich further distinguishes between faith and belief, saying,
If faith is understood as belief that something is true, doubt is incompatible with the act of faith. If faith is understood as being ultimately concerned, doubt is a necessary element in it. It is a consequence of the risk of faith.
Perhaps we should understand faith as trust, in which case Tillich warns,
…faith is more than trust in even the most sacred authority. It is participation in the subject of one’s ultimate concern with one’s whole being.[1]
Finally, Tillich proclaims,
Man’s faith is inadequate if his whole existence is determined by something that is less than ultimate. Therefore, he must always try to break through the limits of his finitude and reach what never can be reached, the ultimate itself.
How can I encourage you to reach, to make that which is Ultimate your ultimate concern? To participate with your whole being?
More importantly, how can I distill this into something you can process today and feel like you understood?
I think the most basic way to understand faith as ultimate concern, is to make it about action. We often hear that Judaism is about action, not belief. Right? Amein, I agree with that. But can we say, using Tillich’s definition, that Judaism puts action above faith? On the contrary, Judaism does not just want you to do things. The tradition invites you to bring all of yourself: your questions, doubts, fears, joys, convictions. It seems that Judaism may be the best exemplar of Tillich’s understanding of faith—that it’s not about what you believe, it’s about having the courage to doubt, and participating with your whole self. That means body, mind, heart, soul… blindly following without engaging the intellect is as empty as believing Judaism to be true and not taking any action to show it.
I believe (meaning I think this is true, without substantial evidence to prove it) that of the numerous issues that are often brought up as the cause of the decline of Conservative Judaism, it is not intermarriage that is the biggest concern, it is not one day a week Hebrew school, not the trickling pipeline to Jewish leadership, nor the cessation of meaningful youth programs for teens and college students. These are not the issue—they are a symptom of the issue. The real problem is the decline in faith, a neglect of ultimate concern for that which is most ultimate, and a misplacement of ultimate concern into things that are, in the end, disappointing and less than meaningful: the non-ultimate.
In this position, with the faith of our communities dwindling, how can we respond? What treatment could there be for this malady? The only way forward, to bring the vibrancy and color, enthusiasm and joy back into the heart of our shul and movement is to realign our concern to the Torah, to Hashem, and to each other, making Hashem the priority of our concern. When this happens, when we see people acting with courage and bringing their whole selves and applying themselves to the Tradition and applying the Tradition to their whole selves, we will see a Jewish revival of unprecedented scale, wider and deeper than the birth of Hasidism, early Reform movement, or the Jewish Renewal of the 70’s, we can build a Jewish world brighter and bigger than any seen before.
So why haven’t we? … well, it’s a lot of work. And we all have other jobs that call for our attention. Yet faith is a work that is more real than any other, being as it is at the very core of what it means for us to exist.
What of our existence? Maybe now, six Rosh Hashanah services in, you are ready for the answer to the question, ”What is the meaning of life?”
The answer I can give you, as my dear students know, is easily found in the work of Chaim Vital, who teaches
נוֹדַע אֶל בעלי מַדָע כי גוף האדם איננו האדם עצמו... נמצא האדם הוא הפנימִיוּת אבל הגוף הוא לְבוּש אֶחָד.
It is well-known to scholars that the body of a person is not the person itself, rather the person is the innerness, and the body is just a garment it wears.
Understanding where our innerness, the soul, comes from answers the question of the meaning of life in a simple way. Our souls come from G-d, but not just in a “G-d made it” kind of way… in an “actually part of it” kind of way.
Moshe Chaim Efraim of Sudilkov taught,
כי אף כשאדם עובר עבירה כשיש לו חלק אלקי ממעל בוודאי יחזור בתשובה דאורייתא וקוב"ה כולו חַד. ושורש נשמתו היא ג"כ מהתורה אם כן איך יכול לפרד את עצמו מהתורה וקב"ה
Even if a person commits a transgression, because they have a portion of Hashem within, they will certainly return in teshuva, since the Torah and the Holy Blessed One are a unity and each person’s soul is also rooted in the Torah. As such, how could they possibly separate themselves from the Torah and the Holy Blessed One?!
Our purpose is to understand that we are part of the Divine unity and the Torah, and that by enacting the Torah in this world, we bring divinity into existence—not just for ourselves but for the world, Hashem, and the Torah. That is something worth committing to; something ultimate that if we concern ourselves with and bring our entire selves to, is meaningful, true, and authentic.
It’s not just about what we do, or about what we believe; it’s about putting our actions and our priorities together and together putting them into something bigger than ourselves.
Use this time in the days of awe, to really consider what you are making your ultimate concern, and if that which you prioritize is worthy of that concern. Our tradition has faithfully supported our ancestors for 3000 years, perhaps it’s time we put our faith in Hashem and the Torah from which our very souls are derived and make this the year of serious engagement and investment into ourselves; our bodies, our minds, our souls, and our community.
And finally, my blessing for you all, on my last Rosh HaShanah as your rabbi. With the transitions at hand, new leadership and new projects, I know that many of you want to be involved in ways that you will not be involved and things will happen in ways that you don’t think they should happen. Remember that you are a soul and that all of our souls come from the same source. May you always be kind to one another and try to assume best intentions from our leadership and other members. Participate fully and bring your full self. Remember that the only reason we don’t have this kind of crowd at every service, event, celebration, and class is because we are choosing not to. I want you to be so successful, and to make everyone question, “what are they doing to be so vibrant and active? How can we be more like them?” You can do it, and I hope that I will see it and regret my decision. I love you all, and wish you the best year ahead – Shanah Tovah.
________________
[1] Empasis added.
