I was fascinated as I listened to Sharon Brous discuss Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In this, understanding the meaning of the word Teshuva [Hebrew תשובה, often translated as 'repentance,' 'return' or literally 'stopping in your tracks and turning around']. How does one make repair when there has been a breach in a relationship? She discusses how this period in the Jewish calendar, the High Holidays, should impact one’s perception of their community, their relationships and themselves.
In regards to her first meaningful experience of the Shabbat: That’s why this feels so real to me; because it’s actually about something. The things that I believe are impacting our world are actually part and parcel of the religious experience.
Now, with Rosh Hashanah over and Yom Kippur to come next week, we are in the middle of the High Holidays. What is it that I can learn from this liturgy, these faith traditions that sometimes seem so foreign? What does it mean to repent, to turn back and to return, to be transformed and to transform? Is it relevant to me? Or perhaps a better question, does that relevance extend in both directions?
It seemed as though the religious life not only had nothing to do with what was going on in the world but it had nothing to do with what was going on in our own lives. And so, we would take a perfunctory break from our lives and come into this space out of only obligation, not religious obligation but really familial obligation because that’s what Jews were supposed to do and Jews in my family did… There was more to this incredibly powerful tradition. The Rabbis say that the Torah was handed down in fire and in fire it is to be transmitted from one generation to the next. Growing up, we had no sense there was any real power or spiritual sustenance to be derived from our religious life.In the religious establishment, everyone would throw their hands in the air and say: Why are we losing all the young people to Buddism? Or why are they going to India to study? And the reality is, in sitting through tortuous services for hours and hours and hours is just not a compelling religious experience for people anymore.
I do think there is something generational going on in the Jewish community now. My parents were just as uninspired as we were in services but they still felt this profound sense of familial obligation to show up. In my generation, people don’t feel swayed by guilt like that anymore. And now people would much rather … do something else that feels really personally compelling for them. But they’re not going to sit through services if they’re not touching them deeply in a personal way anymore.
A somewhat related post about my limited Jewish experience.
Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.
Rabbi Heschel
