2nd Day of Rosh Hashanah Sermon 5765, by Rabbi Denise Eger

We live in an age of anxiety. The news we watch on television is designed to make us nervous- with the headlines blaring at us over and over each 22 minutes. And the perennial news ticker scrawling across the bottom of the screen adds to the intensity. The radio and newspapers are no better---the radio blares the sounds of terror from around the world and the newspaper pictures—now in full color show us the horrors of war. The Internet—sends us email alerts on a variety of topics when the economy is up and when it is down. You can tailor make, which alerts you will get. In other words personalized anxiety!

Our whole society sits increasingly on edge. Urban life with all its complications moves to an increasingly intense tempo. Traffic is more intense--making a simple trek across town a nerve-wracking experience. For most of us our work demands more and more from us with less and less time off. It is no secret that American workers have less vacation time than any in the industrialized world. Most of us must take computers, phones and email from work on any vacations that we do have and we are increasingly being asked to work longer hours for less pay. Whether on the front line of blue collar workers—like the housekeepers in local hotels who are struggling to clean more rooms per hour at a breakneck speed with harsh working conditions or we are white collar workers who must put in more than the 40 hour work week with no overtime pay according to the new standards put into force by the Bush Administration this past August. Corporations are downsizing, outsourcing, and going bankrupt at breakneck speed. We worry whether we will have a job at all. Anxiety and frustration in the workplace is at an all time high.

Travel to foreign lands—is more exhausting as the hurry up to wait in longer lines at the airport has its own frenzied rhythms. With fewer flights—no meals on board even on cross country flights, and cramped quarters whether in coach or business and fewer upgrades available—travel isn’t the easy going, pleasant occasion it used to be.

It seems we live in a constant state of near panic.

Those who suffer from diagnosed anxiety and panic attacks are on the rise. One out of 75 people will experience a panic attack in their lifetime. An anxiety disorder isn't just a case of "nerves." According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA), an estimated 19.1 million Americans ages 18 to 54 (13.3 percent of the population) experience this illness. It is the most common psychiatric condition in the U.S. No wonder more of us are having a difficult time coping and sales of anxiety calming drugs are through the roof.

We all need to take a deep breath and get our bearings. We need a time out from this frenetic pace to examine the impact of this situation on our lives. And most of all we need a strong center to cope with the competing concerns of our postmodern world. We need to learn to stop and hear the voice of God calling out to us. We need a core of faith to give us strength to face our fears.

This second day of Rosh Hashanah reminds of this need to breathe and to organize our beings. It reminds us to say Hinneni – I am here. The 2nd day Rosh Hashanah helps us to get our bearing on the New Year. These Ten Days of Awe help us reframe our lives, and help us put our priorities in order. Rosh Hashanah helps us address the anxieties we face. Through prayer, ritual, meditation and study we can look at the plague of anxiety and help ourselves to refrain from engaging in the urban cacophony of nerves that we daily face. The second day of Rosh Hashanah specifically calls out to us to slow down. Our celebration need not be cramped into one 24-hour period. Our celebration of the New Year and respite from our everyday lives gives us a chance to put away the quickened pace of our lives and to stop and luxuriate in these moments of reflection and prayer and yes, faith. Today gives us a chance to say –Hinenei—God --I am here—ready to face the New Year—ready to face others and myself.

But most of all the message of this second day of Rosh Hashanah is one of faith. It’s message is to remind us that one way we can cope with the competing concerns, the contradictory messages, the nerve wracking pace is by placing our faith in a Power much greater than ourselves. This second day of Rosh Hashanah teaches us about fear and faith, anxiety and shalom—peace. One way can do so this morning is to examine closely our Torah portion.

With the second day of Rosh Hashanah we read from the story of the Akedah –the binding of Isaac. This classic tale—of father and son— of near-sacrifice and redemption, of faith and fear points us toward thinking through the costs of our constant state of anxiety.

Today let us think of Abraham—ordered by God to sacrifice his son, even though he knows that this is the son that is supposed to carry on his line and his name. This is the son, Isaac that is according to tradition, to fulfill the covenantal promise. Do you think Abraham was calm in the face of God’s call to him? Or do you think he was anxious? Nervous about what the future was to bring? Can you imagine that in the story that we read this morning—that the three day journey to the Mountain God would show them, was perhaps the most anxiety provoking trip Abraham had ever been on—torn by his faith in God and his love of his child? The Torah is silent about their emotions and feelings. It is up to us to imagine how they felt.

And think of poor Isaac, accompanying his father on a journey to a place they do not yet know. Abraham makes Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain. And Isaac even questions his father, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” The father in perhaps the most ambiguous statement in the entire Torah, replies God will see to the sheep for the burnt-offering, my son. Streams of Jewish commentators from Rashi to Ibn Ezra have had a field day with the Torah on this line. Depending on how you read the Hebrew and where you place the emphasis—this line can mean many things, it could be read as we did—God will see to the sheep for the burnt-offering, my son… or it could be read that God will see to the burnt offering of the sheep—my son. Imagine how Isaac felt—being described as sheep and offering. What might have been his level of panic and fear when he realized he was to be the offering? What was it like to be bound to the altar and see his own father’s hand about to bring the knife down around his neck? Panic? Fear? Anxiousness? Anger? Sadness?

This story indeed reminds us that our own fears are part of the human spectrum. This story reminds us too—that each of us face trials in life—just as this was Abraham’s Trial by God. How we face those trials is the measure of our character. Do we meet our fears head on as Abraham did? Or do we shrink from our tasks?

For many of us who are cynics and skeptics-our faith is fragile if there at all. And the pace of our lives allows little time or effort to build our faith in God. And yet, this story with its most complex themes and ideas comes to teach us exactly this Jewish ideal that helps us deal with our fears and possibly with our anxieties too—that is the ideal of faith –emunah

When our fears, our anxieties get the best of us—we need a place to turn that can provide the steady and calming source of shalom—of peace. This story of the Akedah that we read on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah –as much as it is about fear is also about faith—strong faith that allows us to overcome the irrational, to overcome our fears, and to open ourselves to a deeper connection to faith in God. This story time and again has been taught that Abraham’s trial by God is a test of his faith and yes, tests of faith by Isaac, as well. This trial, this test was built of a faith so deep and so rich that Abraham’s faith in God carried him through the most repugnant actions—to bind his child of his old age to the sacrificial altar. But this wasn’t a faith built overnight—it was built of communion and communication with God throughout Abraham’s lifetime. It was built on hearing the voice of God’s love speak to Abraham’s heart and Abraham’s dialogue with Divine. This was a faith built on prayer and sacrifice at other times—of God calling to Abraham and Abraham quiet and still enough to hear God’s words so that he could answer –Hinneni. This was a faith built on Abraham taking God to task for Sodom and Gemorrah and arguing with God on their behalf. Abraham’s faith was the outpouring of a deep relationship that had time to grow.

And what about us? Do we allow ourselves the time to build that relationship? Or are we rushing around—overwhelmed by the pace of life, the tasks on our lists, the anxieties of our time, too busy to build a communion with God? Do we leave time for prayer? Do we leave time to listen for the voice of God?

Abraham’s faith in God’s ultimate Goodness and in the promise of the covenant allowed him to fulfill God’s command to offer up Isaac. God who blessed Abraham and Sarah with a child so late in life to fulfill the covenantal promise must have a greater end in mind. Thus Abraham’s steady faith and belief brings him to the moment with knife in hand poised to do God’s will—just as the angel calls out to him—Abraham Abraham—and again—Abraham answers—Hinenei I am here… And in that moment—when the angel calls out and Abraham replies Hinenei—That is the moment of goodness, and faith. The moment our fears and yes, their fears melt away. Those moments before the angel calls out—peaks our anxiety to a fevered pitch. And then in that Hinenei --the model of our faith is born out.

We too must look towards those moments—moments when our fears seem to get the best of us; moments of panic, and nervousness—when we must stop to listen for the angels that call out to us—so that we may answer Hinenei. For when we do—we too will know a faith in God—not unlike Abraham and we will be able to put aside the pressures of traffic, the anxiousness of deadlines, the nerve-wracking competing concerns of life—and say with a perfect faith—Hinnei—I am here God—place your gift of shalom, in me that I may do your will.

But we must also use this day of Rosh Hashanah as a way to build our faith and our relationship with God- Let Abraham be our teacher—that our ongoing dialogue with God must happen throughout the year—not only once or twice a year. This is how we build our faith and how when our fears get the best of us—we can turn to our God at the core of our being for comfort, hope and strength. This was the test of Abraham—let it be our example as well.

Posted by Lee at September 21, 2004 11:37 AM