Perspective
Sep. 29th, 2008 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuTonight begins Rosh Hashanah. And this year, it's going to be different.
Normally we are focused on the holiday aspects of it. Who's coming for meals? Will my zwetchgenkuchen come out ok? Will I get to see everyone I want to at tashlich? But this year, it's going to be different.
Our beloved cat died over the weekend. Not just "died", but was "put to sleep." No, avoid the evasive passive: We decided over the weekend that it was merciful to end Dusty's life. At that moment, we held the power in our hands to choose "who shall live out the measure of his days, and who shall fall short of the measure of his days."
Also over the weekend, two friends each lost a father.
Several members of our extended family are facing significant health crises.
Our country faces an economic crisis that threatens the livelihood of millions, and an election on which hinges nation's ability to protect ourselves in the global spheres of politics, economics, and military defense. Countries, as well as people, are judged at this time.
So here we approach the Days of Awe, and I honestly don't care so much about what food we're going to have tonight. (I do care a little, admittedly. Did my zwetchgenkuchen come out ok?)
I approach the Days of Awe trembling as I haven't for years. The words of the Untane Tokef prayer seize my brain:
The Book of Remembrance is opened, and each person's record is signed with one's own hand. The whole world passes before You like sheep beneath the shepherd's staff, and the soul of every living thing is counted, and their judgment is decreed. On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on the fast day of Atonement it is sealed: Who shall live and who shall die, who in his time and who before his time, who shall have enough to live upon and who shall starve, who shall be impoverished and who shall wax rich.
And repairing our deeds, and prayer, and acts of justice can transform a destructive decree.
And so I say the same words I say every year, but this year they are different, because this year I apprehend their meaning more deeply:
May we all be written and sealed in the book of life: for a year of good, a year of health, a year of sustenance, a year in which we help one another, and a year of peace.
And if I have harmed any of you in any way, I beg you to tell me, so that I may ask for forgiveness before it is too late.
Normally we are focused on the holiday aspects of it. Who's coming for meals? Will my zwetchgenkuchen come out ok? Will I get to see everyone I want to at tashlich? But this year, it's going to be different.
Our beloved cat died over the weekend. Not just "died", but was "put to sleep." No, avoid the evasive passive: We decided over the weekend that it was merciful to end Dusty's life. At that moment, we held the power in our hands to choose "who shall live out the measure of his days, and who shall fall short of the measure of his days."
Also over the weekend, two friends each lost a father.
Several members of our extended family are facing significant health crises.
Our country faces an economic crisis that threatens the livelihood of millions, and an election on which hinges nation's ability to protect ourselves in the global spheres of politics, economics, and military defense. Countries, as well as people, are judged at this time.
So here we approach the Days of Awe, and I honestly don't care so much about what food we're going to have tonight. (I do care a little, admittedly. Did my zwetchgenkuchen come out ok?)
I approach the Days of Awe trembling as I haven't for years. The words of the Untane Tokef prayer seize my brain:
The Book of Remembrance is opened, and each person's record is signed with one's own hand. The whole world passes before You like sheep beneath the shepherd's staff, and the soul of every living thing is counted, and their judgment is decreed. On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on the fast day of Atonement it is sealed: Who shall live and who shall die, who in his time and who before his time, who shall have enough to live upon and who shall starve, who shall be impoverished and who shall wax rich.
And repairing our deeds, and prayer, and acts of justice can transform a destructive decree.
And so I say the same words I say every year, but this year they are different, because this year I apprehend their meaning more deeply:
May we all be written and sealed in the book of life: for a year of good, a year of health, a year of sustenance, a year in which we help one another, and a year of peace.
And if I have harmed any of you in any way, I beg you to tell me, so that I may ask for forgiveness before it is too late.