Shabbat Sukkot; By Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week we are celebrating the Festival of Tabernacles, Sukkot. This is the joyous festival of the fall harvest. During this week of celebration we enjoy the bounty of the earth, visit with family and friends and welcome them and our ancestors into our sukkah. How beautiful the sukkah is decorated with fruit and flowers and the glow of our ancestors, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, David and Deborah as we recite the prayers of Ushpezin.

But how tragic it is that so many Jews forget this most important festival! In ancient days Sukkot was known as HeChag-The Festival. The Jewish world descended upon Jerusalem and the Temple in throngs giving thanks to God for the goodness and bounty of their lives. But sadly today in our world of 21st Century Judaism too many Jews are ready to condemn God and religion for the ills of the world and their lives but forget to take the time to look at the wonder of life that still unfolds daily and see the Eternal’s beauty in those moments.

The Festival of Sukkot coming so closely on the heels of Yom Kippur is no mistake. Rather we must look at the High Holy Day Season as continuing to unfold around us. Our observance is not complete if we only observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We have only experienced a small part of the story.

Sukkot is the book end to Rosh Hashanah. At the New Year we sounded the Shofar and declared the majesty of God and celebrated the creation of the world. We began in earnest our examination of our lives and deeds and began the process to build ourselves anew. Then came the Ten Days of Repentance where the hard work of forgiveness and commitment to a new way of being were made real. We were to seek out those who we hurt during the past year and make amends. Then the holy Day of Yom Kippur arrived to purify our souls and allow us to atone for our sins. We confess and pray and shape our destinies in the year ahead by the resolve we make in changing our lives. Midrash Tanchuma teaches us “God does not predetermine whether a person shall be righteous or wicked, that God leaves to us.” On Yom Kippur we have the ability to determine the course of our actions, deeds and words.

But then four days later on the 14 of Tishrei comes Sukkot. For now we get to give thanks for the new life, a better life that has been granted to us. We cleared the hurdles of Yom Kippur to arrive a few short days later to acknowledge that indeed the bounty of our life is overflowing. We have not only lived through this precarious journey of repentance but indeed we have been born anew, re-created and celebrate that connection grounded in the harvest of this world! When we take the lulav and etrog in hand and shake it in all directions we acknowledge the glory of the Divine One that hovers over us and around us in this world! As Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote in “Halakhic Man” The lulav and etrog, “Symbolizes the longing of (hu)man for God who illumines the path of all worlds, who dwells in the midst of reality itself and who has contracted His light as it were, within the forms of concrete existence in all its manifestations.” We look for God’s manifestation in our world and give thanks for the evidence of God’s Holy Presence in our lives. We do this by sharing food with loved ones in the sukkah. We do this by being able to welcome family and friends to our table. Soloveitchik continues, “ …the taking of the lulav and the etrog-the fruit of the goodly tree- sustains and affirms the beautiful and resplendent world , which reflects the glory of God who fills and encompasses all worlds.” (P. 62).

On Rosh Hashanah the Shofar announces the creation of the Universe. On Yom Kippur we try to connect to the Ancient of Days and reconstruct our souls. We try to re-align and balance ourselves and seek to draw strength and courage from The Heavenly Abode and God. But on Sukkot we are grounded in this life and this earth and we give thanks that we have been able to seek God in our lives and see the glory and beauty of God in the world around us. This is a more complete vision, a more complete journey. From the earth’s creation to the Heavens itself and back to earth again!

So this Sukkot give thanks for the glory of God that surrounds you. Give thanks for your new life and new way of being in the world granted at Yom Kippur. Give thanks for your family and friends and give thanks for the journey from Rosh Hashanah to Sukkot to the journey of Torah we will celebrate on Simchat Torah. Chag Sameach.

Yom Kippur 5868; By Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week Shabbat coincides with Yom Kippur. The day known as Shabbat Shabbaton the Sabbaths of Sabbaths is this year the Ultimate Shabbat. Yom Kippur is the most holy day of our calendar year and the Sabbath day each week is the most powerful day of the week. Together they make for a day bursting with holiness and strength and Divine Light.

The message of Yom Kippur is to take the power and holiness of the day into our lives and utilize it to purify ourselves from the sins and transgressions of the pasts. The Divine Light which flows freely on this Day into our hearts and souls helps us to root out the darkness of our sins. This is a day to seek forgiveness from God and self and others. We are to think seriously about the ways in which we failed to do the ‘right’ thing. Most importantly we are to ask forgiveness from those we harmed in the process of our sin. And then we are to take our new purity of self and commit to living a life free of transgression and healed from the errors of our previous ways.

This isn’t necessarily easy to do. Old habits are hard to break. And yet we say before God – ךנלפ תנוחש אטח על Al Cheyt Shechatanu L’fanecha ---for the sin we have sinned before You O God,
ונל רפכ ונל לחמ נול חלס Slach lanu, machal lanu, kaper lanu, Forgive us pardon and grant us atonement.

We ask for Divine help to support us in the process of change and true repentance. And we look to the Eternal One of Blessing to grant us relief from our guilt and shame of our personal sins and failures of character. The Light of God and the Power of this year’s Yom Kippur should assist us in this process.

There is a wonderful story that was told by the Baal Shem Tov as written down by Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Komarno, in Chumash Heichal HaBracha, Otzar HaChaim, Naso 33c.

“A person comes into a store where they sell many types of delicacies. The first thing the storekeeper does is give him a sample of each kind, in order that the customer should have an idea what to buy. When she tastes it and sees how good it is she wants to sample more. But the storekeeper says, “You have to pay for what you take. We do not give away anything for free.”

The free sample is the Light that a person experiences when he or she begins to draw close to God on these holy days. Through this taste of light, a person should subjugate all evil and sin and bring everything back to good. This is the “free sample” we are given so that we will realize the taste of true worship and forgiveness. A taste of this remains after the light is withdrawn so that we will know what to seek.”

On Yom Kippur the free sample is the holiness and light of the Divine that reaches towards us with forgiveness. We can use these Days of Awe and Yom Kippur to taste a sample of holiness and purity and strength to live our lives in the New Year drawing closer to God. This Yom Kippur draw the light and power of the day towards your spirit and your soul. May you be Inscribe in the Book of Life and Light .

Rosh Hashanah: Parshat Haazinu; Deuteronomy 32:1-32:52 By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This is a week filled with Torah. The New Year comes to help us change our lives for the better. It allows us to use this season to look closely at our ways and provides a window of opportunity to examine, repent and change that which causes havoc with our day to day ability to fulfill our Covenant with God.

We will hear the call of the Shofar this week. The shofar will through its tekiah, teruarh, shevarim, tekiah blasts ask us to change for the better. The shofar will urge us to confront that which most of the past year we ignored. The Shofar will call us home to the Jewish people and to our covenant with God.
This year Shabbat Shuvah—the Sabbath of Repentance where we will read this week’s parasha—Haazinu, begins as the second day of Rosh Hashanah ends. We will enter the Sabbath with the sounds of the shofar still ringing in our ears from the morning worship just a few hours previously.
Parshat Haazinu is a beautiful piece of poetry in the pentultimate parasha of the Torah. Moses composes this song and it is his last address to the People Israel before he ascends Mt. Nebo to look over the Promised Land. It is then that God will gather him up and Moses will die atop the mountain. But this address to the nation in the form of poetry is a powerful warning to the Children of Israel. While Moses will literally be able to look at the Promised land from atop Mt. Nebo and not be able to cross over the Jordan River with them, this poem of warning is perhaps is Moses’ metaphorically gazing at the future of the People in the New Land.
Moses, who has led the people for more than forty years, knows their strengths and weaknesses. He knows they always need to be reminded of their story and their roots. And so the poem briefly recounts how God lifted this nation up from slavery, protecting Israel and finding a home for them. But Moses’ also warns the people strongly what will happen when they settle the land and become indifferent to their history and to the miracle of their relationship with God. Moses foresees the difficulties that will come when the Children of Israel forget their relationship with God. Moses’ also predicts and tries to make the people aware however, that even at their most desperate hour, when their false gods won’t come to their rescue, God ultimately will. And it is God alone that is the Supreme Being. It is here in this week’s parasha, Haazinu that we come to know Moses’ prophetic voice.
This message is no less timely for the Israelites than it is for us at Shabbat Shuvah. We too may have allowed ourselves to forget our covenant and the blessings that God has granted to us. We may have “forsook God… and spurned the Rock of …support.” (Deut. 32:15). Reading these words on Shabbat Shuvah reminds us that we have a chance to invite God back into our lives for the New Year. This Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we can turn our idolatry or our indifference around and re-establish the link to our people and our God.
That is the message of the High Holy Days and it is certainly the message Moses wants us to focus on in his poem. God will not write us off even though both God and Moses know that we will stray at times. Our task then and our task now is to know that we can come back to this covenant and then to do so!
May the New Year help us find our way home so that in this New Year we can cross over to the Promised Land of repentance, healing, and a New Year of joy, health, prosperity and peace.

Parshat Nitzavim-Vayelech; Deuteronomy 29:9 – 31:30 By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger

We are in the closing chapters of the Torah. This week’s double portion, Nitzvaim-Vayelech truly prepares both Moses and Joshua and the People of Israel for the grand transition of leadership. Moses and Joshua are given very specific instructions that will help to transfer knowledge and transfer power from Moses to Joshua. God summons them to the Tent of Meeting so that God may be Joshua’s teacher. As in any transition it is good for the younger executive to be brought into the loop of leadership. Thus Joshua begins to assume his duties alongside Moses who is also present during this session in the Tent of Meeting. God’s Divine Presence descends upon the Tent of Meeting.

We must imagine the significance of this in the eyes of the people. Moses has already announced that his days are numbered and that Joshua will become the new leader. He has written down the Torah and given it to the priests. So imagine the image of Joshua accompanying Moses’ into the Ohel Mo’ed and God’s Divine Cloud surrounding them. It is a final seal upon Joshua’s selection. For previously this Divine Glory had been reserved for Moses and occasionally Aaron. But now Joshua can come to know and be enveloped by the Holy Glory of God. If any of the people doubted his selection as the next generation of leader—this moment would silence those doubts!

But Moses is still in charge and his task is not yet complete. He is charged with writing down the poem that will fill the verses of the upcoming parasha, Ha’aazinu. It is a final charge and blessing to the people and indeed a bit of a prophetic warning. This is important for Joshua to hear and witness as well. For God shares with Moses and Joshua the future that Israel though successful in conquering the land will stray from their covenant. For Joshua it is a foreshadowing of his real work. That even as they cross over the Jordan and establish the Land of Israel there—his real work will be maintaining the faith of the people in the covenant of God!

This has also been Moses’ challenge throughout his days as the Eved Adonai, Servant of God. Most days he succeeded. Some days he failed. But he always tried to serve God with complete commitment. Even in his disappointment at not being able to cross over the Jordan River and complete the task of delivering the people into the Promised Land, he delivers something much greater that will outlive land and borders. Moses delivers the words of the Torah. This work inspires our faith, records our stories and encounters with one another and our encounters with God. Our torah which Moses commands the Levites to place in the Ark of the Covenant is the symbol of our faith both in the land and out!

This is an important lesson for Joshua as well. For in the Ark of the Covenant, the very footstool of God, is the true inheritance of the People. It will be his task to lead the people to cherish its words and its mitzvoth in the Land. And he will have the influence to remind the People of Israel of its sacred nature. Today we too need that reminding. The Torah which we keep in the Aron HaKadosh, the Holy Ark continues to inspire us and guide us and we pray, keep us loyal to our covenant. In this coming year let us learn Torah in order to keep our covenant with God vibrant, fresh and enduring.