The Jewish Holidays; Rosh Hashanah

fb it's been living with our neighbors involved not only tolerance which is a somewhat passive quality but also understanding since

knowledge is the only basis with true understanding riverside radio has undertaken to bring new authentic information about one group of our neighbors the jews in cooperation with the jewish theological seminary of america we raised a series of programs which tell us about the jewish holidays and through them about the jewish way of life this program in our series about the festival of rosh hashanah which marks the beginning of the jewish new year and ushers in the most awesome period of the jewish religious cycle in contrast to the celebrations that marked the beginning of the secular year in january russia sean is marked by solemnity and by searching self examination the festival opens a ten day period of penitence known as the days of all culminating with the day of judgment the most sacred day in the jewish calendar despite the solemnity the prevailing feeling is one of hope for those penitential season brings a special message to the jew the message of god's forgiveness the speaker on our

program about russia sean as doctor bernard mandelbaum president of the jewish theological seminary of america an alumnus of the seminary the command obama's regarded as one of the most distinguished of the young generation of american jewish scholars following his ordination in nineteen forty six he joined a seminary faculty as registrar of the rabbinical school he was appointed dean of students a nineteen fifty one and provost of a seminary in nineteen fifty nine he's the editor and author of a number of scholarly works and he is also taught him the rabbinical department most recently as a reader in a grouch and seminary professor of hama lex now here is dr mandelbaum as both there are actually four movie is in the jewish calendar less known perhaps is the new year for the trees in a new year when

no one calculates and determines the date for legal documents and then there is perhaps the student of the bible is aware of the fact that the period of passover in the spring the bible refers to the beginning of the year of the new year and is most significant that this third and perhaps second an important new year begins with a commemoration of the exodus of the children of israel from slavery but of course the best known beginning of the year one which we actually celebrate is the day that i refer to at the beginning according to the rabbis who interpret the bible this new year rosh hashanah which literally means the head of the beginning of the year commemorates the period all the time

that god created the world and other words with to commemorate and think about the world in which we live and our activities in the world so that the two principal new year's mark very important ideas and ideals namely passover period celebrating freedom and this period of the year celebrating the creation of the world the rabbis have other interesting historical references that they attribute to this new year that we celebrate now this coming month according to the rabbis at him was born on roshan sharma the beginning of the year and abraham was born that same day adam the father of warm and therefore the rabbis say we learn a lesson from this do most of the synagogue at this period of the year half the thing

through his responsibilities as a human being as a citizen of america for those of us who live here as men who are concerned about freedom for all men and the world that god created the other hand a man is more effective in his relationship to his fellow man when he knows what his tradition is and as part of mankind based on his own tradition and large and that's the reason the rabbis tell us that abraham the father of the jewish people was born on roshan sharma the day which marks the beginning of the year so that a jew has to consider his own relationship to his tradition as he learned more about judaism as he observed the traditions law as the tradition guided him look more specifically to becoming a better man in relationship to his fellow man and so you might say if this is a period of review and calculation of where we're going as i heard someone indicates that the

kind of double entry system that you have in terms of man's behavior every day we have to think about what we do and at the end of the year we think will particularly about our activities as jews and as human beings and indeed this period is called a period of judgment of self evaluation and it is something which is never finished suggesting although this is a period where we concentrate on self evaluation our relationship to our neighbor fact is the rabbis tell us the color yellow a balmy don't actually man is judged every day what was that judgment mean that what we do determines the kind of person we happen to be in the kind of behavior which we live in which we which we influence society so it's an ever ongoing process this business of changing character improving character becoming a better

man not only has to be something we think about on roshan sharma of the new year period but it's something we have to think about every day again the rabbis interpreting of arrests which re open every silent devotion or the prayer book every time we pray silently even on the high holy days they ask this question why does the opening paragraph of this particular prayer begin the god of abraham that brought isaac lott of jacob we could've said the guard of abraham isaac and jacob why repeat the word god three times from this too vague arrive a lesson namely each generation has to work out its particular understanding of god while we lean on the traditional we have a lot in common with the interpretation of our fathers therefore it's also the god of abraham isaac and jacob yet we repeat the word god for each generation just as we have to repeat in our generation

to find out how god is alive and effective and meaningful and relevant in our own lives so that begin with russia shauna and a ten day period we call the ten day period of repentance and concluding with the holiest day of the year the sabbath of sadness mainly he'll keep or the day of forgiveness we have this concentrated period of reflection this as i indicated does not mean but it's a process that should not go on everyday self examination consideration of our relationship with our neighbors and ultimately our relationship to god interesting thing that happened to me when i was a youngster i heard for the first time from a very pious saintly grandfather that during these ten days of repentance the following happens the rabbis say that the righteous people often given immediately for what they may have committed an era during the

course of the year that we get people are not forgiven until the very last minute and those who are just sort of in between the average person has these ten days to repent when i heard that i told my grandfather i said well you don't have to observe were the first minute such a pious myth a given immediately into this he responded if i ever thought but i was so pious that i could be forgiven the first minute and it's an evidence that i need more than ten days of repentance so that he indicated the importance of humility in order to behave well a relationship for one's fellow maine a while the rushes shown a period is not so much of a holiday for children in the sense that there's a special concentration on them is there is there and other jewish holidays like passover and foreign and hanukkah the fact is children are very much on mr on our minds because they are the future adults and in the eighteenth century a famous rabbi by the name of jacob bad wolf

province read the following summer that to the children of the congregation and do you only children for you lovely boys well i relate a parable that will enable you to nolan grass how greatly it is your duty to strive in to strengthen your souls so that you may pour out your spirit before our holy thing blessed be key on the days of all the days that i coming toward us in peace this period of russia shut off we don't keep or this is a parable of a father went on the journey with his little son and thus was their manner of going wherever they came to a place that was narrow difficult to traverse such as a river or mountain or he'll the father lifted his son to his shoulder and sroka strode through that difficult place with him once they came for city that they hadn't evening the gates were shut there was only one narrow

window on the side of the wall the father said to his son you know my son up to now lives they view much travail i lifted you will my shoulder took you in my arms but now you can see it with your own eyes there's no way to get into the city and has given into audience to go through the gate alas you my son strive to climb through the holes in the windows of the wall and open the gate from within with this the rabbi continued we may compare the following you know wholly little children that we are leave nothing of the care isn't the duties of the concerns that we must wrestle with without children that can satisfy all the needs of their little ones what is not thus the day the day when we come in prayer and turning to enter the port of our god for the greats gates of prayer are bolted according to the saying when the house of holiness was destroyed from

that day on the gates of prayer will bolted there's no space for which press content the osu see to it you'll about whole it is written they was swift the eagles sea like birds flying off you have the power to rise to enter the holy place to open the doors of mercy to us if you pray from the depths of your heart to widen the crack the openness the gates of light the gates of grace and of mercy for the pleading of children is the breadth of their mouths and it is a breath without sin it flings why the windows of the vaults of heaven god will hawkins to the cry and to the prayer so what this rabbi said than the sermon at the children in many ways of course apply to all of us who unfortunately to war with and just like the children we have to try to introduce this purity and holiness been all life and one of the most important elements as

i indicated in the story of my grandfather as the importance of humility namely man must know his place but there's a paradox of all in this emphasis on humility because well we say that every man should be humble and always place we also realize that despite the technology and the bigness of the world in which we live we insist that the world is influenced by the action of individual people the rabbis asked why the god made man singing only wanted to create man adam as one human being he could've created millions of men it millions of men at once into this they respond by saying this teaches us that each and every nail is the equivalent of a world and mayor has the power to act to change himself as well as the world that he lives in and this is the paradox humility is important at the same time

we must recognize the power of individual behavior preceded tradition there's a very lovely story that in the spiel a straits this rabbi asked the question why do we have two pockets into this he responded there are times when we feel a certain way we should put it into one pocket we take down a little description which reads that man is little more than the angels sophie feel insignificant but what you do doesn't make a difference you don't have proper self esteem remember may and is little law then the angels the other pocket is the inscription made in his bypass and ashes if you really think your ten little god you have the right to rule over others being considerate of the feeling of love is there's a sense of arrogance of the personal relationship to his fellow man and the ultimately to god and remember man is little

more than the us and ashes and the difficulty of achieving his balance between a proper evaluation of mayonnaise importance and effectiveness of his individual behavior at the same time having the proper humility relationship to your fellow man and his balance which we seek to achieve during this period of repentance and below russia shallow this need for balance this need full confidence in the effectiveness of individual human behavior is summarized in a message that i would like to share with you and conclude this exchange or reviews been a monologue but i have had in telling you some of the notions of basic ideas of this sacred of holidays roshan sharma an arbitrage a show each new year the jewish theological

seminary shares with their neighbors of all faiths all creeds all colors some of the basic insights of a tradition which celebrates roshan sharma because it is the birth date of adam the father of old man and in the major newspapers of the city we've been carrying this high holy day message with which i want to conclude this program this year's message is called the mistake it is a common mistake indeed the mistake of mistakes to imagine that we can influence anyone else to take the path of goodness unless and until we travel it ourselves you want a big family a better community a greater nation we all say we do and who doesn't know the directions in which you would like to see

his family his community his nation and crew but to know the difference between what is good in bed is not enough and to call on others to do what is right is not enough of a deep important in polls we often won poles around us to behave better than we do setting higher standards for our children on abe is that we have been able to achieve for ourselves we urge them to be better and it is going to want them to be so what this is never enough the mistake of mistakes is to imagine we can influence anyone else to take the path of good news unless and until we travel it ourselves a good family that one family is one whose members find mold strengthen enjoyment in each other but while the family is given to everyone on one family is something we must create

there is no doubt that the complexities of uncertainties of life today that get hot off almost any family to stay together share together develop together how can we best open with the forces which tend to defuse family life and our time we must begin by understanding how much we was given ourselves the task of our time our energies operations even as we do in any other area of life what we want to achieve success this is a never ending process is our family keeps growing and changing unique problems arise out of the uniqueness of each member of a family and being human inevitable mistakes yet while recognizing that mistakes are inevitable we could also know that no mistake this final for always we have the opportunity to learn in advancing grow from our mistakes but above all we must realize that our own behavior as the primary creative force in the development

of our family from when a child to listen to us we must learn to listen to him if a husband and wife want more concerned and understanding for their problems each maestro great concern and understanding for the other problem of those problems if we want our family to follow the wisdom of our tradition we must re live by this wisdom as well the mistake of mistakes is tormented that there's any other way to create a good family them by the examples we separate the continuing testimony of our daily acts about a community that build a better community we must move in two directions at the same time to increasingly give every man woman and child greater opportunities and encouragement to develop what is best in himself and to increasingly get old to understand that their security and the ultimately issue only by the security of and everyone else in their welfare is issued only by the

welfare of ordinary does this has been true throughout history even a smaller simpler societies whose people had the same margins the same traditions the same ways of life but it is just as true today in austin with glee growing communities where many millions of people of different origins different traditions different ways of life now live and work together such differences may sometimes make it difficult to see how much we are all neighbors to one another if we all know we cannot forget that a neighbor is someone for home we should have the concerns among the standing along we want for ourselves without accepting these obligations of being a good neighbor we cannot hope to achieve a better community solve problems about a housing of improve education of highest standards of morality

of increased beauty that is why nearly to talk about the problems of our community is not enough we must instead involve ourselves in the problems of our community giving about time operations our energies to the pass the mistake of mistakes is to imagine that we can get a better community by calling on others to do more but we are ready to do ourselves a greater nation how we measure the greatness of a nation we live to see on a shore rise to world leadership a spokesman for the fundamental liberties of mayhem his rights of self government is equality before the law the human dignity is a freedom of religion of reason of responsibility certainly far more than any physical power and wealth it is these ancient we rooted values of

the american tradition which are the measure of our greatness it is not enough there for for us to help and protect other nations out of our great material resources it is not enough for us to relieve the hungry and support the week we can be a truly arab nations only by helping the people of the world developed their own liberties and we can only become such a leader by being integrated nation by the demonstration of how we live up to our own best values of individual freedom and mutual responsibility both at home and abroad the mistake of mistakes is to imagine we can hope to influence other people to do what is right except as they see us do what is right each of us is part of a family a community a nation we all want to advance the goodness

of our family our community our nation to do so requires all the wisdom we can gone up and share with his demands all the concern we can generate and communicate but finally beyond wisdom beyond concern there must always be the eloquence of our behavior the words of the rabbis the stages of all the ethics of the father's call chicago la so we must be unified russell ms graham this if one's wisdom exceeds one that these the wisdom will not and you ms

bee you've been listening to another in our series on the jewish holidays the speaker for this program about russia china with doctor bernard mandelbaum president of the jewish theological seminary of america single copies of the command obama's top are available from riverside radio w r e r for nine on riverside drive in new york or from the seminary at thirty at broadway new york the zip code for both addresses his wonderful to seven please enclose a stamp self addressed on local your request for a copy of the talk these programs on the jewish holidays and the jewish way of life are produced in cooperation with the jewish theological seminary of america whatever you are they are the fm station of the riverside church