For those of the Jewish “persuasion”,
the following thought provoking words have resonated since childhood. “He knows
if you are sleeping, He knows if you’re awake, He knows if you’ve been good… or
bad…so be good for goodness sake.”
Jewish children didn’t
anticipate a toy from Santa Claus as a result of good behavior, but it did get
us all wondering. “How does he know?” “He’s making a list, and checking it twice”…
How does this invisible entity track our every action? We wondered what
improved the chances of a good outcome.
Perhaps a petition! A letter! “Dear Santa Claus.” Perhaps an offering
could be made? Cookies and milk! And if it didn’t work out? Worse case scenario… a lump of coal in your
sock. (Jewish kids didn’t have “stockings,” they just desperately hung a sock
on the mantle.)
Then came Hebrew School. Myth
Buster Alert! Even though he had a big beard, an ample stomach, Santa was, in
fact, not Jewish. That jolly fellow was replaced by stories of an all-knowing
God, holding our lives in the balance on a divine scale. We spend the Ten Days
of Repentance trying to tip the scale in our favor through prayer, sincere
apologies, and charitable acts. We beat our chests and petition God to be
written and sealed in the Book of
Life for another year. We make a final appeal right before the Gates of Heaven
are slammed shut for another year. Pretty traumatic for a kid, don’t you think?
Years pass, and we grow up.
Synagogue attendance is “iffy,” life gets complicated. Often, in social settings,
upon hearing that I am a Rabbi, Jewish people come up and confess “I am not a very good Jew.” I am taken
aback. Their perceived shortcomings are,
with few exceptions, related to lapses in ritual practices and customs, poor or
no Hebrew reading skills, no knowledge of prayer, or a lack of belief in
God. With rare exceptions, the person
telling me this is a “MENSCH” (defined as a person of integrity and honor).
They are infused with so many Jewish ethics and values, yet they sell
themselves short as Jews.
We are the People of the
Book and the People of the Law. The core of our identity as Jews rests on how
we treat people, especially the weakest and most vulnerable, the “widow” and
the “orphan” and the “stranger.” We are the recipients of a wonderful guiding
principal, “Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue,”(Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof, Deut.
16:19-2). But unless we understand the
texts and the Law, our Judaism might be reduced to a mere label… or maybe just a
pile of latkes on Chanukah, not a
system of living laws as it was originally conceived.
This Friday night Yom Kippur
begins with the Kol Nidre. It isn’t a prayer. It isn’t a supplication. It is a legal formula sung to an amazingly
beautiful melody. How very “Jewish.”
While we make our final supplications, and review the list of our purported
shortcomings, let’s make a commitment to personal Jewish exploration, so that
we may continually learn the deeper meaning of what it is to be a “Good Jew.”
MAY YOU BE INSCRIBED AND SEALED IN THE BOOK OF LIFE FOR A GOOD YEAR.
L’Shana Tovah,
Rabbi Rose
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