Our Rabbi's Message
October 9th 2009
By Rabbi Aaron KriegelThe High Holiday period which begins on the first of Ellul, 30 days before Rosh Hashanah begins, finally came to an end the past Thursday when we celebrated Hoshanah Rabbah. On that day, which comes almost two weeks after Yom Kippur we have a last opportunity to ask God to forgive us for the sins, which we committed during the past year. The act that allows us to ask for forgiveness happens when we break willow branches while asking God for Teshuvah.
The process of forgiveness is not automatic and does not happen just because Yom Kippur happens. The holiday just allows us the parameters to work through events in our lives that often have caused us much difficulty and pain. We are not asked to hurry that process. The High Holidays just gives us a time to begin that process. In these modern times we are able to begin processes like these quite easily. We call up a doctor or a therapist and make an appointment. Then, if we are lucky in our choice of therapist and if we persevere we can also find success on a non-theological plane.
In earlier times there were no therapists, no psychology and no way to rid ourselves of what that generation called their demons. They were beset by an evil impulse that seemed to have a life of its own. People then couldn't take a few days off from their surroundings for vacation and time to regroup. They had to fit their search for mental health into the calendars.
Thus, among other possible methods to leave our wrong deeds, thought (sins) behind we had the option of the High Holidays. People took those days seriously, especially because life was harder and the position of the Jewish community was always more precarious than it is now. With every generation we fine tuned the process of self healing and that process worked until moderns believed that it did not work and identified it only as a time to blow the shofar and a time to fast.
In truth the rituals of these weeks served an important purpose. We have changed religious ritual to secular ritual. Some do not take Jewish healing ritual very seriously, but in the meantime they often make bad choices and choose new untried options, which leave them depressed and more in need of Teshuvah, or should I say healing.
|
|
||