sermons

First Day Rosh Hashanah
5765
"Are You Ready?"

The Bar Mitzvah arrives 20 minutes before the service begins, he puts all of his books down on the shulhan as uncle Leo walks in and says, "Nu, boychick, are you ready?" He takes a deep breath and nods, and goes over his Torah reading one last time.

The bride and groom wait together just before they are about to walk down the aisle. He looks into her eyes and smiles, "are you ready?" he says. She smiles back as the music begins.

A young couple is awaiting the birth of their first child. With one month to go they are beginning to feel the pressure and ask themselves if they can really do this. As person after person asks, "are you ready?" Their response is: "ready or not, here it comes."

Over the past few weeks the question that I have heard the most often, without a doubt, has been "So Rabbi, are you ready?" The more I thought about it the more I realized how important that question is. Am I ready for what? Am I ready for the Holy Days? Am I ready for change? If I am, what should I be doing? If I'm not, what should I be doing? How do we as Jews get ready?

Rabbi Allison Bergman tells a story about how when she was 10 or 11, her entire family would get ready for Rosh Hashanah services. "My father" she writes "in his ritual charcoal gray pinstripe suit, my mother in a tasteful and elegant dress. We've all fought with my sister, who at 9 refuses to wear anything resembling 'Temple attire', and finally agrees to wear a skirt, as long as she can wear her sneakers. Meanwhile, my father is down stairs. About every five minutes I hear "Are you ready?" or some derivation thereof. Exactly 15 minutes after we were supposed to leave, my father yells one last time, 'even if you aren't ready, I'm leaving', and we come running down the stairs grabbing coats, and pile into the car to begin the New Year."

Sound familiar? We all have different ways of getting ready, of preparing ourselves for the things that we want to do, but when it comes to those important things in our lives, how we prepare can sometimes be even more crucial than the event itself. It sets the stage for things to follow.

This morning I'd like to look to our tradition and see what it can tell us about how to prepare for the important things in our lives. To begin with we turn to Exodus. The children of Israel have left Egypt and have begun to wander in the desert. Once they reach Mt. Sinai, everyone is aware that something special, something incredible is about to happen. And so Moses speaks to them and tells them, "V'hayu nekhonim layom hashlishi." You shall be prepared for the third day. Moses tells them to be ready for three days, and on the third day they will be given the Torah.

Why not just give them the Torah on the first day, why the wait? Benno Jacob, a contemporary Torah scholar, teaches that their inner preparation must begin immediately. Human beings need time to be able to incorporate changes in to our lives. Very often, the more time we give ourselves, the easier the transition.

Of course, that is not always the case. We understand that sometimes even all the time in the world will not make the ultimate moment easier. I have had a discussion with numerous people over the years as to which is preferable-to have a loved one pass away unexpectedly or to have the time to prepare. I have no doubt, after being involved with so many families over the years, that as difficult as it is to watch and wait the shock of a sudden death is even more harsh. We need to prepare and bring ourselves to a place that we can ultimately accept the reality that faces us.

We need time to be ready for things in our lives, and as busy as our lives get, time is often hard to come by. It is only through an act of will that we make the time for those things that are important to us, and the way we spend our time is the strongest indicator of our priorities. We see that in the Bar and Bat mitzvah students that come forward and shine because of the time they have given themselves to learn. And so the first step in making ourselves ready is giving ourselves the time to be ready.

The next step we find in our torah reading this morning. There are certain things, as we have already mentioned, that no amount of time or effort can truly prepare us for. Abraham was faced with that situation as God asks him to take his son, Isaac, and offer him up as a sacrifice. How can you prepare for that? How can one ever be ready for that? Over the many years our tradition has ascribed all sorts of different motives to Abraham and answered that question in various ways, but the one constant in the discussions of Abraham was his faith and trust in God.

That is the next ingredient in effective change-Faith. Faith that change is good. Faith that we can do it even if we don't know exactly how. When that couple walks down the aisle, there are no guarantees as to what life will be like, but they have faith in each other and in their relationship. And so they walk.

Unfortunately, my friends, faith is not a constant. Sometimes it is there like a tower of strength, and others it is a wisp of smoke. When faith falters there is yet another piece to the puzzle-Courage. It is easy to step into the water as our Tradition says Nachshon did at the Red Sea when you have absolute faith. But not all of us are so lucky to feel that way all the time.

Even some of our prophets were not so eager to leap into action. Take the story of Jonah that we will read on Yom Kippur. God comes to Jonah and say I want you to go up to Ninveh and tell them that they are sinning. Jonah immediately goes down the other way. It is not until spending a bit of time in a big fish that he is ready to hear what God wants of him. What was his issue? He told God that he was afraid of what they would do to him. Kierkegaard wrote, "The courage I need is the courage to lay one food before the other as a faithful parent, child, friend, as an honest human being."

When Jonah found his courage he was finally ready, and went to Ninveh even though he was afraid. People face their fears every day and we make ourselves ready to face them by working on our courage. Take the young woman getting ready to have her child, "Ready or not, here it comes," as she summons to courage to face the unknown.

The last piece can be found in the early story of Moses. While tending his sheep he finds the burning bush and God lays out for him what is ultimately going to be his destiny. There was no time to prepare; his faith is as yet untested as this is his first real encounter with God. During the conversation we see his courage falter as he asks God to find someone else, and so God provided for him a very important aid in his readiness-help. He told Moses that Aaron would be there to help him, and that he did not have to do it alone. Once he had that help, the other components quickly came into place and he led the children of Israel out of slavery.

Time, Faith, Courage and Help. That is how we as Jews ready ourselves for the challenges that lay ahead. That is how we face change and the push to always improve. Rosh Hashanah centers on these very themes. It gives us a forum to think about them and work them into our lives.

So rabbi, are you ready? Yes, I am. We have taken the time to ensure that the important issues are being addressed. I have an abundant faith in this community and in what it can accomplish as well as the courage to take the journey with all of you. But most importantly, I know that I am not on the journey alone, and that I have the company of all of you for help. And so I ask you all in turn-are YOU ready?

Shana Tova