High Holiday 5785 Message from Rabbi David
Dear CBE Community and Friends,
This year, our theme will be Joyfully Jewish at CBE. Joy is a critical aspect of Jewish life, so much so that there are at least a dozen words in Hebrew for joy. Most of us know simcha, which also means a joyous occasion like a wedding or B’nai mitzvah. Oneg also means joy, as in celebrating the joy of Shabbat with some fruit and cookies after services. The Jewish wedding service includes many more words for joy.
How can we focus on Joy during such turbulent times, when the future of America, Israel, and the Jewish people seem so fraught and uncertain? Perhaps it would be more fitting to take off the “J” and just have it be the year of “Oy!”
In the Jewish tradition, fear and trepidation are balanced out by Joy. Rosh Hashanah represents this balance. In the Torah, Rosh Hashanah is called Yom Teruah, a day of sounding the Shofar on Yom HaDin – the Day of Judgment. The Shofar is also a call to battle, a warning siren, and a call for introspection. The Talmud says, “The content of the blowing of the shofar is a broken heart.” The Shofar, and Rosh Hashanah, according to these texts, focus on fear, trepidation, and even mourning.
But the sound of the shofar also marks a festival of joy – “And on the day(s) of your rejoicing, your appointed times and New Moons, you are to blow a blast on the trumpets…” Ezra and Nehemiah also taught that Rosh Hashanah is not a day for mourning and weeping. “Hold your peace, for the day is holy; do not be sad!” (Nehemya 8:11). In the Torah, Rosh Hashanah is described as both “a day of teruah” of fear and apprehension and also a day of great joy/Simcha.
In Jewish tradition, Joy is a mitzvah, a moral and psychological imperative. We are told to “Serve God in Joy! (Psalm 100:2)) – to express our identities and religious feelings in joyful ways. Reb Nachman of Brazlov (1772–1810) who suffered from terrible depression, emphasized the necessity of joy. “God, I stand beaten and battered by the countless manifestations of my own inadequacies. Yet we must live with joy. [We must] overcome despair, seek pursue and find every inkling of goodness, every positive point within ourselves – and so discover true joy. Aid me in this quest, O God. Help me find satisfaction and a deep, abiding pleasure in all that I have, in all that I do, in all that I am.”
Joy can serve as an acknowledgment of life and a great act of moral resistance to terror. Former hostage Noa Argamani’s abduction from the Nova dance party was captured in a terrifying video. She spent 245 days in captivity before being freed by the IDF and held a “Return to Life” dance party last month. Noa started the party by acknowledging the ongoing war and the fact that over a hundred hostages, including her partner Avinatan Or were still being held in Gaza. She continued saying the cheers of her friends and family, “…At the same time, I’m happy to celebrate life itself with all of you, to remember that we have to value every day in this life, we have to celebrate every moment that we’re here.”
Joyfully Jewish at CBE means having a place to express our Judaism proudly, and safely. It is a place to come together and celebrate Jewish life and learning, despite the terrible antisemitism that has arisen since October 7th. Now is the time to embrace and be proud of our heritage, and to find joy and comfort in it.