And the countdown begins. Two weeks until Rosh Hashanah. (RSVP here). But what is it all about? Beyond the apple dipped in honey, what is really going on?
Well, let's take a look at this week's Torah and try to gain insight. It reads "When you go out to war upon your enemies..." and it continues with some of the laws pertaining to soldiers at war.
The choice of wording is peculiar. It would seem to make more sense like this: "When you go to war with your enemies". The word upon and go out require further explanation. And the biggest question is, what does this mean for those of us (I'm pretty sure that would be most of us) who are not soldiers at war?
The message is that when we struggle with personal challenges or our personal war against that which is wrong, we should remember two things. That war of any sort is unnatural for us, dealing with this "enemy" is just not who we are, we need to go out of our zone to deal with it. When approached with this mindset, we can be certain that the outcome will be a victorious one - uponour enemies.
This is Rosh Hashanah. Tapping into who we really are, and what is truly important to us. And then, everything else falls to the side.
Later today, I have the honor to officiate a funeral for a gentleman, who although throughout his life may not have had the opportunity to be very active Jewishly, when it came down to it, he was absolutely clear that he wanted to be buried as a Jew, wrapped in his Tallit (prayer shawl).
(If you can help make a Minyan so the Kaddish prayer can be said at the funeral, please reply to this email)
Let's come together to reconnect, and we can be assured that we will be victorious over any challenges and have a good and a sweet new year!
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Dovid Bush
ב"ה