September 18, 2009

September 18, 2009

Give a Hand in the New Year.
The Jewish New Year is upon us. This weekend Jews around the world will observe Rosh Hashanah, the start of the year 5770 in the Jewish calendar.
For many of us the New Year comes not a minute too soon. This past year has been a year of tumult, crisis and difficulties. Finances and families top the list of challenges.
Many people and institutions in the Jewish community had invested funds with Bernie Madoff. His ponzi scheme devastated so many families who and charities. Some charitable organization that had their own organizational investments with Madoff closed their doors.
All of our families lived through the campaign to eliminate marriage for gay couples. Today, 18,000 same-sex couples are legally married in California but gay and lesbian couples who did not marry during that time—or had not met yet—are banned from the protections and responsibilities of a legal, loving family.
And when our gay, transgender or questioning youth and their counselor were gunned down in Tel Aviv—miles away from California but only a heartbeat away from our synagogues and families—the world mourned.

These crises led many of us to examine our lives; to take an inward journey re-evaluating our dreams, needs, actions, desires, and hopes. Whether we reflected on the shifting sands of consumerism, credit markets, and the banking world or we reshaped our understanding of family to include gay families and families whose children are gay, we have been changed.
Financially, our notion of stability is shaken to our core. Our notions of what we thought God was to provide for us slipped away as surely as our tuition funds disappeared and our retirement funds faded. Homes are foreclosed and unemployment affects every community.
Personally, we see the changing human landscape of gay and transgender people who refuse to be silent. We see the progress of more openness in synagogues and other faith traditions while thinking about dust and ashes as children are mowed down and fear mongers mobilize people who think they are being faithful.
We have to ask, “Will the New Year be a time to heal from this deep pain and crisis? Will the New Year bring with it an opportunity to change course, turn over a new leaf? What else should I do to make sure all families are respected and protected by the laws of the land?”
During these Days of Awe as we begin a process of teshuvah or repentance. This is the deep examination of our inner lives. We examine our own actions and deeds to review our errors and transgression and how we might distance ourselves from them in the year ahead. We confess to those misdeed and shortcomings. We use prayer and meditation to help us bring the Divine Holy Presence closer in our lives. We work to try to ask for forgiveness and to forgive others and ourselves. This engagement with people lifts us all up. This is a process which points us toward hope.
The Talmud relays this following story of Rabbi Johanan who once fell ill. And Rabbi Hanina went in to visit him. Hanina said to Johanan Are your sufferings welcome to you? He replied Neither they are nor their supposed reward. Hanina said to him: Give me your hand. Johanan gave him his hand and he raised him up. Why could not R. Johanan raise himself? The sages replied: a prisoner cannot free himself from jail. (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 5b).
This story comes to teach us a profound lesson in these days of crisis. It takes a helping hand to raise us up from our crises. It takes reaching out across the great divides that hinder our country and our traditions. Whether race class, gender, orientation or even partisan politics, this is a time to heal and to bring comfort. It is a time to forgive and be forgiven.
The hands of friends, neighbors and family will raise us up and we will raise them. In this year of deep crises and reflection, when so many are out of work, or grieving loss, we need to help bring a touch of humanity back into their lives. Even as we engage in self-examination, prayer and meditation, it is the human touch which completes the spiritual journey.
So as the Jewish New Year descends upon us perhaps we will reach out to someone in need, a neighbor who is out of work, a family member or someone we have wanted to meet and offer a hand up, a meal, a kind word, an opportunity to build some hope for the New Year.
I wish you a Happy New Year. Shanah Tovah u’metukah.