{"id":58492,"date":"2017-09-18T09:19:29","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=58492"},"modified":"2017-09-25T07:19:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T12:19:42","slug":"reflections-rosh-hashanah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/reflections-rosh-hashanah\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections Before Rosh HaShanah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Personal Post-Storm Rosh Hashanah Reflections<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nThe recent storms in Houston and the Southeast have dominated our thoughts, emotions and efforts. \u00a0They have also introduced new and renewed relationships for me and my colleagues at the Orthodox Union. We have received an extraordinary number of calls and emails, sharing information and sharing feelings. \u00a0In this spirit, I share with you some of my thoughts in anticipation of Rosh Hashanah.<\/p>\n<p>I typically stumble into selichos, and then Rosh Hashanah, lamenting my inexcusable failure to prepare with the necessary effort and attention. \u00a0I had hoped that this year would be different since, after decades of being occupied with my legal practice, I had shifted my focus to Jewish community concerns. \u00a0Then came Harvey, and then came Irma. And the likelihood of entertaining a mussar seder, or a pre-holiday review of the machzor, became even more remote than it would have been, in any case. \u00a0Upon reflection, however, the recent storms may have been a most effective introduction to the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>Prominent among the themes of the High Holidays is malchios, G-d\u2019s Kingship. \u00a0A focus on G-d\u2019s Kingship requires not only recognition and exploration of the presence of G-d, but also an awareness of the nature of mankind.<\/p>\n<p>We remind ourselves that G-d is the Creator, is Eternal, is Omnipotent, and loves and cares for each of us. Simultaneously, during the Ten Days of Repentance we also remind ourselves that while we are extraordinarily gifted and empowered by G-d, we remain wholly dependent upon G-d for every breath we take, every item we possess, and every talent and blessing we enjoy. This focus on Kingship permeates Rosh Hashanah, and is continued by the numerous additions to our prayers through and including the crescendo of the Neela service concluding Yom Kippur.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, for many of us, and certainly for me, malchios is an idea easier to intellectualize than to internalize. \u00a0First of all, the very concept of a king is unfamiliar. \u00a0We do not experience a biblical-like monarchy and contemporary Western governments may enjoy many powers, but they uniformly fail to inspire the awe and reverence suggested by the concept of malchios. \u00a0Moreover, we tend to take ourselves really seriously, acting (or least pretending) as if we are pretty much in control. \u00a0We frequently do not leave much room for G-d once we have taken our portion of the credit. And, in any event, it requires a lot of focus to remind ourselves of our human limitations and G-d\u2019s omnipresence since G-d has adopted the elusive state of hester panim (hidden behind a veil). \u00a0G-d surely hears our pleas to return to a relationship of gilui Shechinah (overt revelation), under which G-d\u2019s Kingship would be so much easier to understand. \u00a0\u00a0And so the annual High Holiday focus on malchios is somewhat of a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Now however, recognition of malchios may be a little more accessible. \u00a0Mankind\u2019s vulnerability has been put on display, and (notwithstanding whatever\u00a0subconscious message is intended by the assignment of human names) the storms reawakened us to the awe and power of the Creator. \u00a0And though the vivid images we observed and the profound insight we achieved may fade with time, so far they remain in our hearts. They can, therefore, be harnessed on Rosh Hashanah to aid in our declaring absolute subservience and allegiance to the Kingship of the Al-mighty.<\/p>\n<p>The events of the past few weeks have also provided a second reason that recognizing malchios will be easier this year. \u00a0As popularly framed by Rabbeinu Bachya, we are taught that \u201cain melech belo am,\u201d a kingship is naught absent a nation. \u00a0Intrinsic to our recognition of G-d\u2019s Kingship is identifying ourselves as being members of His nation, the Jewish people.<\/p>\n<p>Occasionally, we forget that our relationship to G-d\u00a0is tied to our connection with each other, and sometimes we are lax in our commitment to those beyond our family and close friends. \u00a0Over the last few weeks, however, the volunteerism, generosity and concern for others whom we\u2019ve never met cannot be understood as anything but an expression of our profound connection with each other. Our community has come together. \u00a0We have declared our peoplehood, and now we are primed and ready to declare G-d\u2019s Kingship.<\/p>\n<p>May we all, as individuals, families and communities, be blessed by the Al-mighty with a New Year filled with good health, Jewish nachas, and religious growth.<\/p>\n<p>Moishe Bane<br \/>\nPresident, Orthodox Union<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personal Post-Storm Rosh Hashanah Reflections The recent storms in Houston and the Southeast have dominated our thoughts, emotions and efforts. \u00a0They have also introduced new and renewed relationships for me and my colleagues at the Orthodox Union. We have received an extraordinary number of calls and emails, sharing information and sharing feelings. \u00a0In this spirit,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133412,"featured_media":58510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reflections Before Rosh HaShanah - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mankind\u2019s vulnerability has been put on display in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and the storms reawakened us to the awe and power of the Creator.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/reflections-rosh-hashanah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reflections Before Rosh HaShanah - 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