Rosh Hashanah Sermon
Written by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet Thursday, 20 October 2005
Rosh Hashanah Berlin 2005 Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet
On Rosh Hashanah we stand in judgment before God. The imagery of this period is built around a very powerful mediaeval view of the world. God is the King and Judge who has the power of life and death over us. Each year we are called to account for our actions in God’s courtroom. We have an opportunity to correct some of our faults and mistakes and misdeeds of the past year in the ten days before Yom Kippur, but in the end we are dependent on God’s mercy whether we live or die in the coming year.
This imagery belongs to a world in which human Kings and Emperors did hold this kind of power over the lives of their citizens. Moreover there was a great distance between the King and his subjects. A great hierarchy of authorities and institutions stood in between. But today, unless we live in a dictatorship, our society is very different. We live in a democracy. The leaders are chosen by us. They are not distant figures that we hold in awe, but people just like us whose every action is observed and judged. So the responsibility for what happens in our society is in our hands. In the past we could lay the blame for everything that happened on the distant ruler. Today we know that each of us is accountable.
With this in mind, I wondered what would happen if the rabbis who had created the different aspects of the High Holydays over the centuries had lived instead in our days. What imagery would they have used as a basis for this period of self-examination? I found one possible answer in the annual general meeting of a company and would like to explore that now. On the first of Ellul the Notice was sent out of the Annual General Meeting of the Jewish People Ltd. Today, on the first of Tishri the 5766th meeting takes place. Naturally we follow the Agenda for such an occasion.
The first item is to take Apologies for those who are unable to attend the meeting. The list of names is too long to read out. The number of absences seems to increase each year. This is clearly a matter of concern for the Company. In every Diaspora community the numbers of Jews decreases year by year. The only exception is here in Germany but that is only because of immigration and no one knows whether we will keep the next generation. Why are so many disappearing? Partly it is the price we pay for living in an open society. There is no need to belong. It is possible to live a perfectly reasonable life as part of the wider society. But we must also admit our own responsibility as communities. There are many things that make people reluctant to become involved with Jewish communities. There are too many internal fights. This would not be such a problem if they were about values and ideas. Sadly they are more likely to be about power, status and personal pride.
In many cases the community is not welcoming to people. For many people their Jewish status is a problem, even if they wish to belong. In our stupidity we make it even harder for them to find a way in. This may be the saddest part of the Agenda, but also the first place where we need to do repentance, Teshuvah.
Next on the Agenda is Corrections to the minutes of last year’s meeting. If there are no corrections … we can move on to ‘Matters Arising’. These are decisions we made last year about things we were going to do during the year. How we were going to change. Promises to behave in a better way. To be more honest in what we do; to spend more time with our family; to be more sensitive to the feelings of other people; to stop smoking; to eat less; to take more exercise; to take more responsibility for our society or the life of our community; to give more charity (Zedakah); to resolve old quarrels and disputes with people. Each person will see their name in the Action Column of the Minutes against the thing that they decided to do.
Many of these things have happened, but sadly many have not. However we cannot report fully on this matter today. We still have to wait till just before Kol Nidre when the final list of unfulfilled promises is complete. We would strongly recommend that everyone take the opportunity of the next ten days to complete any unfinished business of this kind. We know that God is very patient with us, but we must also do the best that we can.
Next on the Agenda is the report of the Treasurer. Here we have a very mixed report. There are communities, like America, where we are able to report a very successful year. Not only in terms of the wealth accumulated by the community but the excellent use to which they have put it. There are a growing number of Jewish Day Schools in all of the different movements. Donations for welfare and for Israel continue to increase. A lot is also invested in Adult Education which is very important in an aging population. But we must also report that there are communities, like Argentina and many countries in the Former Soviet Union, where our people experience severe poverty and hunger. The treasurer recommends that we address this matter seriously on the coming year, especially as winter approaches.
As usual our people give to non-Jewish causes, wherever people are in need. This is a great mitzvah. In America in particular they also support the Arts: Theatre, Art, Music, Literature, University Studies. Sadly, in Europe, they do not support Jewish Theatre, Jewish Art, Jewish Music, Jewish Literature or Jewish University studies. A working party has been studying this for twenty years but has not yet reported. It should be on the Agenda for next year’s meeting.
Next on the Agenda is the Report of the Chairman. There are no major plans for the coming year. Instead the report focuses on where we are today. It assumes that the Jewish people are deeply tired. The last year has seen no change in the chronic tragedy of the struggle for the survival of Israel. It registers the same number of hopes and disappointments as in the previous fifty-seven years.
From the outside come the military threat of the Arab world, the political pressures from Europe and America. From within the same political power struggles and the exhausting daily reality of living with the threat of war and terror. In Europe we see the rise of anti-Semitic incidents, and even if we overreact at times they add to the ongoing feeling of pressure. No wonder there are people who feel that they had had enough of the burden that comes with a Jewish identity.
So what is the answer, asks the Chairman? What we have in the end is hope. But there is true hope and false hope. False hope is that there will be a sudden, magical change in circumstances. That all the problems just mentioned will disappear overnight. That is fantasy, and dangerous fantasy. It leads to frustration because nothing changes in such a way, and frustration can lead to fanaticism and violence.
The other kind of hope has a different basis. It is built on the belief in the meaning and purpose of Jewish existence. This has never been a short term matter. It is the hope that in our failures and successes, in the privileges we receive and the suffering, in the gifts we make to the world and the lessons we learn from our experience – in all these is the hope that we are still true to a call we heard a long time ago, and a contract we signed with God beside a mountain in a wilderness. The price we pay is a very great responsibility, which is why we need once a year to review where we are – individually and as a people.
The Chairman concludes: May this be a year in which we understand that hope and can live by it.
That concludes most of the business of this Annual General Meeting. We have to ask whether there is Any Other Business that people wish to raise. If not the date of the next meeting is the first of Tishri 5767.
May we all use to the fullest the Ten Days that lie before us.
May the coming year be filled with courage and fortitude, with blessing and with hope.
