Rafi Metz, Day 1, d'var Torah, September 27, 2003
L'Shana Tova - A Good Year
As we begin the year again, we commemorate the 6th day of Creation, when G-D created Adam and Hava, and the Human Race. Rabbi Akiva Tatz, in "Living Inspired," says that this day retains its power of creation. On this day, we are able to recreate ourselves. On Rosh ha Shana we can resolve and be inspired to live the coming year as a new and better person, to make positive changes and be revitalized.
This is a time of beginning, and at the beginning, the blueprint is laid down for everything that follows. There is a certain potency at the beginning, a power at the moment of conception that has longlasting effects. Rosh ha Shana lays down the code for the rest of the year.
Rosh ha Shana happens on the new moon, when its light is concealed. Purim, Tu b'Shevat, Sukkot and Pesach all happen on the FULL moon, when the moon's light is revealed. At Rosh ha Shana, when the moon is in its potential state, Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu examines and evaluates our concealed world, our potentials, our hidden talents, and our use of them. On Yom Kippur we look at the world of our actions, of what we have done in the physical world, but at Rosh ha Shana, we experience the judgement of our interior life, the domain of our potential, and of our spiritual development.
A guide for this inner-directed self-examination is in the Amida of today’s Rosh ha Shana Musaf service.
In Malchiot, we ask ourselves if we honored the King of Heaven, by challenging ourselves to do the best we could by improving our ways and deeds, and not worshiping the false kings of material, consumer culture.
In Zichronot, we remember and dredge up from our memory, to see how we used our potential, how we did some things right, and some we did wrong. We remember how our actions have had broader repercussions among the people around us.
In Shofrot, the Shofar is the voice without words - the prayer that is so deep and powerful that it cannot be articulated. Shofar is the wordless cry, the cry of Sarah's many years of barreness, and the cry of Hagar for her son Ishmael. The shofar is the cry of Hannah, in today's haftarah, the weeping that becomes the first silent prayer.
The shofar is the hidden world before words. Words represent the world of action. Words don’t adequately define the connection we yearn for, and shofar represents our tfila, reaching for that connection. The shofar breaks into the hidden world, shatters our complacency, and awakens our potential.
Rosh ha Shanah, still resonating with the spiritual force of that first creation, and the shofar, urge us to examine our hidden selves, our true selves, our roots in G-D, to return to those roots, and to improve ourselves, to lay down a new blueprint for the coming year, to best do the will of the Creator Before Time, and to bring Tikkun Olam.