Dear Friends;

 

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah on Rosh Hashanah;

 

” Parsha in a Nutshell “

 

The Parshah of Nitzavim start by saying: “You stand today, all of you, before the L-rd your G-d: your heads of tribes, your elders, your officers, and every Israelite man; your young ones, your wives, the stranger in your gate; from your wood hewer to your water drawer.”

 

Moshe warns of the exile and desolation of the Land that will result if Israel abandons G-d’s laws, but he then prophecises that, in the end, “You will return to the Lord your G-d”.

 

Then Moshe says: “For the Mitzvah which I command you this day, it is not beyond you nor is it remote from you. It is not in heaven… It is not across the sea…. Rather, it is very close to you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it.”

 

Moshe also talks about freedom of choice: “I have set before you life and goodness, and death and evil; in that I command you this day to love G-d, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments… Life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. And you shall choose life.”

 

“ Dvar Torah “

 

Le’ Eluy nishmat “Nissan Ben Gavriel”, my late father in law, Mr. Lotfollah Hakimi;

 

Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the “Aseret Yemei Teshuva”, the ten days of repentance. Although we start the Selichot prayers from a month before Rosh Hashanah, but that is only considered as a preparation for repenting. The actual “Teshuva” or repentance  process starts from Rosh Hashanah and ends at  Yom Kippur. It’s during these ten days that we reflect on the past year, recall the bad we did and the good we failed to do, apologise, confess and ask for forgiveness.

 

Yet, there’s almost no mention of Teshuva on the days of Rosh Hashanah. There is no confession, no selichot prayers, no “tachanun” is recited, no reference to the sins committed over the past year and no looking back. The only references to the process of Teshuva is a prayer reminding us that today our fate is being written for the next year: who will live and who will die, who will be healthy and who will be sick, etc……

 

Surely the beginning days of repentance should begin with repentance?! So why is there no mention of Teshuva on Rosh Hashanah?! Rabbi Jonathan Sacks summarizes the answer in one simple quote: In order to mend the past,  first we need to build our future.

 

This idea could be seen in the characters of the Torah such as Abraham. When Sarah died, Abraham was 137 years old. He lost the woman who had shared his life’s journey with him.  He might have been paralysed by grief. But the Torah says: “Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and wept for her….. and then Abraham rose from beside his dead”. The Torah continues by saying that Abraham did not sit idle. He immediately bought a plot of land in Israel to bury his dead and arranged for a wife for his son. So instead of grieving about the past, he started to build his future. He knew that building his future comes before honoring the past.

 

But the opposite could be seen in the Torah too, in the character of Noah. After the flood, Hashem tells Noah to go out of the Ark and fill up the earth once again. But it seems that instead of looking forward, Noah looked back. Overwhelmed by grief, he found refuge in wine.  Before the flood he was the only person in the whole of Bible to be called righteous, yet he ended his days drunk and ashamed in front of his children.

 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says that this is precisely the reason why we don’t start the 10 days of repentance with repentance. On Rosh Hashanah, We pray that our names would be written in the book of life. We pray for prosperity and good health. We pray for peace in Israel and all over the world and we pray for our children. Only when we have finished praying for our future, only then, on the intervening days and Yom Kippur we can turn and apologise for last year. In Judaism the future comes before the past!

 

Yes my friends, in life, we do and sometimes we should regret the past. We should regret our sins and our mistakes. We should cry for tragedies and death. But we should always look forward to the future! We base our lives on the future. We work so hard throughout our lives, so that we can provide a better future for our children. We build great synagogues and Temples, so that our children can benefit from it. When our fathers left Iran, they did not sit back and and grieve for what they’ve left behind, but rather, immediately they started to build the future for their family and their children. And now we are enjoying the fruits of their labor. And this is what Rosh Hashanah is all about ……… building our future!

 

Accordingly, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all Shanah Tovah U’Metukah. May this year be a year of health, happiness and prosperity for all of us, and peace in the land of Israel and across the world. A year that the sweet taste of honey remains in our mouths for the rest of the year. A year that we build a better future for our children and we see them grow.  And after Rosh Hashana, let us move forward towards Yom Kippur and regret the past and ask for forgiveness!

 

Shabbat Shalom, Shana Tova & Regards;

 

Martin