This Shabbat is the final Shabbat – the culmination of the year.
Next Shabbat will be the first Shabbat – the beginning of the new year – the first day of Rosh Hashana.
Whoa, already the end of the year? Where did the time fly?
There are so many good things that happened this year and I don’t want them to stop.
On the other hand, there are some challenging things going on that I am quite happy to finish.
I anticipate that a new year will bring new and fresh energy that will leave no trace of last year's negativity.
There is a saying in English ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’. If you eat it, you no longer have it.’
I don’t agree. I pray to not just have my cake and eat it, I want to embellish on it: ‘I want to eat my cake, and to still have it, and not to get the aftereffects of increased bodyweight show up on the scale’.
Impossible you say.
True.
But only if you are limited to a reality that is bound by nature.
We are miraculous people. If it was up to nature there would be no Jews to talk of.
Yitschak, the continuation of the Jewish people, was born to a ninety-year-old Sara. And a one-hundred-year-old Avraham.
Nations have come and gone. The Jewish people is miraculously still here. G-d makes miracles for us. Quite obviously and openly. They are still ongoing.
So let us pray to Hashem for the kind of year that He can provide. Without bothering to think about the confines of nature.
Let us elevate for a moment and see things from the perspective of the infinity of G-d and ask for the full version of blessing.
Here is what I am referring to.
The Torah portion last week of Ki Tavo was full of blessings. The incredibly uplifting and powerful blessings that are showered upon the heads of those who hearken to the words of Hashem.
The Torah also shares what the result of not listening to Hashem would look like. Very unpleasant consequences to say the least.
The timing is not coincidental. The reading these verses just before Rosh Hashana is planned by Ezra the Scribe, some two and a half thousand years ago.
The Sages say that Ezra instructed us to read the harsh words of what happens ‘if you don’t listen to the commandments of Hashem...’ two weeks before Rosh Hashana, so that we can ‘finish the year and its curses and begin the new year with its blessings’.
תכלה שנה וקללותיה – תחל שנה וברכותיה
Simply read it would mean, let the year with its curses end, may the new year with its blessings begin.
I would like to take license to fine-tune the concept to mean as follows.
May only the negative things of this year finish.
The good things, may they continue and be ‘imported’ into this new year as well...
As the ‘bad’ things, may they end with the year end and not enter into the new year.
In today’s computer/smartphone language it would be like importing all the good files and content while weeding out the viruses and corrupted files.
Seems impossible? Not for G-d who is unlimited and omnipotent.
But we need to do our part and invite G-ds blessings into our life.
Our mission is to tailor our behavior here in this world below, in the same way that we wish to elicit G-d’s reciprocal treatment of us.
Here is how I think it translates to our actions.
Let us take stock – cheshbon hanefesh – of what things we want to import to the new year, and what things we want to discontinue at year end.
With regards to our good habits, let us strengthen them. And make new, even better resolutions.
The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to make new resolutions about strengthening the relationship with Almighty G-d.
The negative things we may be engaging in?
Drop them. Cold turkey.
The end of the year is a perfect opportunity to discontinue any inappropriate behaviors that we may have picked up during the year that do not behoove us.
And may G-d reciprocate by continuing the good things and terminating the not-good things.
My dear friend,
Above all let us practice gratitude.
Give thanks to Hashem for His kindness throughout the year.
Wish your friends (and be wished back), all the blessing for a good and sweet new year.
It is a custom on Rosh Hashana to dip an apple in honey and during the entire High Holiday period we customarily dip our Challah into honey and eat ‘lekach’ honey cake.
Allow yourself to reflect on the message of the honey.
First, before you open your next jar of honey recognize how much effort has gone into producing that honey.
This following meditation came to me a few days ago when someone shared the stats about honey production. I found it of benefit to me, and I thought it could be helpful to others as well. As a catalyst that leads to good results.
Honey bees will tap about two million flowers and fly 50,000 miles (80,000 km) to make one pound (454 g) of honey.
This point is a very important lesson – especially for social-media-boomers who expect results in a split second.
A young person recently complained to me that they opened a takeaway food business by preorder but they are thinking of closing the business because of low sales volume. I asked them how long ago they opened the business. They said one week ago.
It took me a moment to get it. The person that complained is in their twenties. They are used to instantaneous results.
Drawing on my ‘adult’ perspective of pre-internet age, I advised that perhaps they keep it open for a few weeks before they decide whether or not the business has a chance for success.
Real results can take time.
Learn it from the bees.
The honey contains a poignant lesson about encouraging people not to give up when doing good things. Rather, one should expend more effort and in most cases one will eventually succeed.
The ‘real’ and traditional reason taught by our sages why we use honey as a central New Year them is transformative. It is because of the great incongruity of the bee whose sting is painful and which we therefore seek to avoid, producing one of the sweetest substances.
Click here for more about apples and honey on Rosh Hashana.
This honey-like transformation of bitter to sweet is what we seek in our lives. As Rosh Hashana arrives, we pray that the things that seem to be hurtful, negative, stinging and even sinful, be transformed to sweet, meritorious, blessed and fruitful realities.
And it truly is our reality as G-d loves us.
But G-d, your G-d, did not want to listen to Balaam, so G-d, your G-d, transformed the curse into a blessing for you, because G-d, your G-d, loves you. (Devarim 23:6)
To be a Jew is to be one of G-d’s beloved people.
Tragically, the classic antisemitism that we thought had been thrown to the annals of history has had a rebirth in recent years all across the globe.
Well, that simply reminds us that we are Jews.
AM YISRAEL CHAI – we are alive because G-d is alive and we are attached to Him.
For nothing in the world would G-d exchange us, and for nothing in the world would we tear ourselves away from G-d.
G-d will change any curses to blessings due to His love for us.
G-d we love you!
Shabbat Shalom,
Shana Tova
Rabbi Yosef Kantor