Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2

7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2

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Rosh Hashana 5773

Day 2, Drasha

Rabbi Shaanan Gelman

Three Visions of Kedusha

Tehilim , Psalm 81 deals with sounding of the shofarupon the

holiday of Rosh Hashana:

If one looks further into this kpitel, he will note that there is a

peculiar focus upon one individual in particular Yaakov Avinu:

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2Sing aloud unto God our strength; shout unto the God of

Jacob.

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5For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

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Rosh Hashana is thus the holiday in which we make contact with

God, but more specifically, on this day we beseech the God of

Jacob.

And though the is often referred to as the 1

the month of the Avot, there seems to be a vested interest in

Yaakov Avinu.

The Midrash (Tehilim, as well as Yalkut Shimoni) picks up on the

fact that Yaakov has been singled out as the sole representative of

Rosh Hashana and the month of Tishrei, using the followingparable:

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There was once a King who had three dear and beloved

servants. And the King decided to build a Palace in a certain

location

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He brought the first servant and said I would like to build a

palace, to which the servant replied I recall that this place

used to be a mountain.

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,He called the second one overand he replied I recall that

this used to be a field.

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Finally, he called the third servant overwho replied I recall

that this used to be a Palace. Upon hearing his reply, the

King said I hereby promise to build that palace, and I will

name it after you.

And Midrash explains the nimshal:

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Abraham called the Temple a mountain, Yitzchak referred to it as

a field but Yaakov called the Beit Hamikdash a house.

Says the Kadosh Baruch Hu, I will name the house after you,

Jacob, hence it is called the .

The chazal provide for us 3 distinct visions of greatness:

, , Mountain, field and a house.

What is a mountain and why is that the vision of Avraham Avinu?A mountain is an insurmountable height. It is a challenge, a test of

the wills, a . To climb a mountain, you must be a revolutionary,

a person who confronts the norms of your world, who doesnt

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cower in the face of opposition, who cultivates social and religious

upheaval. There is a phrase for this kind of individual is so brazen

so as to go against the grain in Torah thought an , one

who uproots mountains.

Over the course of Avrahams life, he is presented with one

after another, each challenge more difficult than the previous.

How appropriate that when he arrives at his most awesome test,

the , that he is told to do so atop a mountain, !

He therefore sees Kedusha, or the (which is the

epitome of kedusha) in the shape of a mountain, because climbing

that mountain was so central to the Jewish world which he had

sown.

Yitzchak envisions a alternative picture of , primarily because

his portfolio is so drastically different than his fathers.

Yitzchaks role isnt to climb and create something new, rather, his

is to maintain and to consolidate.

Yitzchak, the , doesnt struggle to perform the akeidah,though he is undeniably affected by it. He doesnt climb the

mountain, he is led there. Yitzchak doesnt struggle with leaving

Israel, he doesnt even have to worry about dating, he just stands

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there in his , his field, praying as shows up in his life. In

meantime, was nearly killed by and trying to make

the shidduch a reality.

Yitzchak doesnt dig wells, he maintains them. He doesnt oppose

the world like his father had, he strengthens what has been already

built, fortifies the existing foundation.

To him, holiness isnt a mountain; it is a field a .

The is the market place, it is where the Jew interacts in the

business world, and yet preserves the values established by theprevious generation.

But then Yaakov enters the scene, and he is the perfect

amalgam of his father and grandfather. Yaakov sees the

vision of a building, a home and knows that is the true

shape of the Shechinas resting place. Why a home?

Because the is something which needs to built, but it is

constructed atop the existing foundation. Unlike the

which demands only going into neutral, one has to be

forward thinking and innovative to construct a house, but

not in the radical fashion of Avraham Avinu. The

must advance the cause but he is no revolutionary.

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It is that vision of greatness which the Sages chose to

invoke the , the house of Jacob.Jacob, the man

who contributed, but never altered; who took

strides forward but was ever mindful of the steps

which had been taken before him.

There is an immaturity of sorts which permeates current

Jewish thinking in many circles. It is the arcane notion that

to establish holiness, I have to be different than my

parents and my grandparents; that everything has to

radically shift in order for God to reside in my presence.

Young adults, more and more are under the impression

that the values passed down have become irrelevant, that

they dont speak to a new generation, that in order to find

God we need to change religion and parenting styles and

what we eat and how we dress.

In truth, there was a time in recent history when we had to

be revolutionary: immediately after the destruction of

European Jewish civilization, we were in survival mode. In

the 40s, 50s and a little bit afterwards the objective was

to build Judaism from ground up. To establish Yeshivot, to

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found the State of Israel to climb the proverbial

mountain!

But as we established Jewish life, we learned to coast, to

maintain, to hold onto the newfound Yiddish revival. In

short, we shifted from the to the , wherein it was no

longer an uphill climb, but an act of consolidation. The

hero was no longer the person who founded a day

school but the person who sent their children to a

Jewish day school.

You see, to Yitzchak, it is still a mountain, its just that

from the top, it looks like a field.

Thats why, after the akeida, Avraham descends the

mountain but Yitzchak doesnt accompany his father. For

Yitzchaks mission statement is different.

Alas, we have entered a new generation, the third

generation after the holocaust has arrived, and now we

have to build a atop the field, which rests on that

mountain of Avraham Avinu.

And the question is what have we accomplished? Have we

indeed constructed that home? Or are we stuck on one of

the first two modus operandi of Avraham and Yitzchak?

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We either attempt change everything we see, to climb a

new mountain, or we have set assail into the sea eternal

boredom with the flat of Yitzchak.

Radical reformation of Judaism is certainly rampant, but so

is over satisfaction.

So many of us have simply gone into cruise control we

dont see the need to grow, to cultivate and to add to what

has been established 40 years ago.

We think that our schools are perfect, that our educational

system is not in need of any tweaking, and if someone

suggests so then they are not a Zionist or they are an

extremist. And we think that our shuls are perfect, but if

someone wants to have a davening free of conversation

he or she should shop elsewhere. Worse yet, we think that

we are the fully developed and fully perfected Jew and we

say to our children things like whats wrong with the

way I turned out? Am I not religious enough?

On Rosh Hashana we must ask:

What are we going to add in the coming year? What kind

of house are we going to construct?

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As the descendants of Yaakov we are mindful of our past

while we take careful steps forward.

As the this has meaning on two levels, the

personal and the global:

In the realm of the personal:

We must continue a life of shemirat mitzvoth and amidst

the challenges of tuition of aging parents of paying the

bills and struggling to carve out a niche socially, we have

to make room for growth, for a Binyan. No more status

quo! No more waiting around in the field for miracles to

happen! Because our homes wont become holy if we

merely become preservers of the old and act as docents in

a museum. Judaism has to come alive again. Not different

than yesterday, but not stale.

Sometimes you get the impression that the seuda on

Shabbos has been preserved for centuries in a jar of

formaldehyde, our kids deserve more than that... for them

we must build. But at the same time, they have to know

that they are on top of the mountain because someone

made the climb for them, that it is a zechus to be Jewish,

that they ought to be proud of what their parents

constructed though never too proud to make some repairs

and add a new coat of paint.

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But there is also an important message for the Jewish

people as a whole:

The free countries of this earth are shaking in their

collective boots at the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran.

And what has been their response? In Europe they have said

nothing, in America, they are too busy campaigning to save their

political careers to notice that it is their lives in need of rescue.

Because most of the world is preoccupied with a business as usual

attitude. An attitude, that none can affect me, and that I

will remain secure indefinitely. There was a time and a place for

such an attitude, the golden era of Post WWII and perhaps

immediately after the Cold War, when in the States it was assumed

that we were the worlds economic superpower and undisputed

military giant. But Iran has stripped us of that leisure, and

everyone knows it.

And why is the world silent in the face of perhaps the most

frightening reality since the dawn of humanity?

We are the ones who took on Nazi Tyranny and who told theRussians to take down the wall! What happened to the land of the

free and the home of the brave?

The answer is that everyone has put their hopes in Israel.

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The world is not afraid because they all say Israel will take care of it.

Because Israel understands that if there is a problem, Im not going to

wait around for someone else to be my partner, if there is a hungry person,

I am going to feed them our mantra of means after me, we go

firstand the world can sleep a little easier because this little tiny country

called Israel will not quail or withdraw in the face of a challenge.

And on that day when David comes forward to fight Goliath the world

will sigh in relief.

This is the of our father Jacob, who runs away from his maniacal

brother Esav, when he has a dream. In that dream he envisions a place of

serenity and security and as he probes into that vision a little further and

he sees a house, suddenly, he awakens and proclaims:

Yaakov had discovered the secret of Jewish survival

build

Build a Jewish family, bring Jewish children into this world,

dont be afraid when they tell you its not economically

sound and that tuition costs are too high!If you had a target on your head like Yaakov did, you

probably would not decide that it was the best time to

marry four women and bear twelve sons, but Yaakov did.

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Because he understands that in order for the contributions

of Avraham and Yitzchak to mean anything at all, he has to

continue to grow.

And when the will undoubtedly confront the of

our time We will do so because it is in our nature

not to wait for catastrophe to strike, not to sit idly by

and let the world fall to pieces. We do not take comfort in

the past deeds and we do not accept the notion that Esav

has the bomb.

And when all is said and done, and they condemn us in the

UN and in the public arena, those fair whether friends will

retire to their homes and mutter in an undertone Thank

God for Israel.

And one day, may it be soon, the children of Jacob will

build that very he envisioned so many years ago, and

we will gather, followed by every nation on this earth and

pray to the Almighty in the ,

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Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2