Dear Friends,
Baruch shehecheyanu v'kiymanu v'higiyanu la'zman ha'zeh. Blessed are You, Hashem, who has given us life and sustained us to reach this moment.
As Rosh Hashanah begins – when we light candles or say Kiddush – we will express gratitude to Hashem for His gift of life. We will recognize that gift as individuals who were granted another lease on life last Rosh Hashanah, when we passed before Hashem one by one k'vakarat ro'eh edro, as sheep before their loving shepherd. And we will recognize that as a people, existentially threatened by a hostile world but sustained by a loving G-d.
This is a moment to consider and to reaffirm the miracle of our existence and continued faith in Hashem.
In 1946, Israeli Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog visited the DP camps housing thousands of Holocaust survivors. He spent the holiday of Shavuot in the Foehrenwald camp in the American Zone of occupied Germany and described the experience:
"Here was revealed to me the eternal faith of the Jewish people that is embedded within it from generation to generation… I had the opportunity to spend meaningful time with many individual Jews, to bandage the wounds of their embittered souls. I visited each organization and group; I prayed with every minyan; I gave sixteen public addresses over the two days of the festival. Until my last day, I will never forget the lofty and indescribable sight of thousands of the stateless Jews, survivors from Poland, Hungary, Romania, etc., each one of whom represented through his personal tragedy and through the look in his eyes the loneliness and tragedy of our nation; I will never, ever forget how these thousands gathered around and danced for four straight hours while singing "Ani Maamin," the Jewish anthem of belief in a better future. I felt at that moment as if here had come together the faith of the generations from Avraham and until our day."
Witnessing that – even hearing about it – stirs our faith in the eternal destiny of the Jewish people. But that same faith can be stirred by what is happening here and now in synagogues everywhere. Look around the room and it will be hard to understand how everyone got there, gathering from the four corners of Jewish life, people who grew up closer or farther from tradition. And yet here we are, standing together as Jews on the high holidays and praying for a better future for the entire world, where G-d's presence is recognized and His word lived by.
That faith can also be stirred by considering the remarkable rebirth of our people, especially in Israel. Could anyone have anticipated that from six million Jewish victims slaughtered in the Holocaust we would be privileged to see – in the span of a few generations – well over six million Jewish residents of Eretz Yisrael?
Rabbi Yaakov Emden – who died in 1776, long before the upheavals of recent Jewish history – wrote the following in the introduction to his Siddur:
"One who considers the uniqueness of our situation and position in the world… after all the difficulties and the transformations that we experienced over the millennia… how many and how strong were our enemies… but they have been unable to prevail, to destroy us and finish us off. All those great nations of the past are gone without leaving a trace, but we who are attached to G-d, we are all alive today. With all the force of the prolonged exile we have not lost even a letter or a vowel of the written Torah, and the words of the Sages – the Oral Torah – remain intact… When I consider these wonders, they are more impactful to me than all the miracles and wonders that G-d performed on behalf of our forefathers in Egypt, in the desert, and in Israel. And the longer the exile continues, this miracle is further demonstrated, and G-d's strength and might are even more manifest."
Our faith in G-d's enduring commitment to the mission and destiny of the Jewish people is not blind faith. We are its proof.
The recent challenges, the hate that has targeted Jews in Israel and around the world, have not discouraged or alienated us; they have brought Klal Yisrael home to G-d and to our people and community.
Baruch shehecheyanu v'kiymanu v'higiyanu la'zman ha'zeh. Thank you, G-d, for granting this nation eternity; for ensuring that despite all those who rise against us, we are still here.
We are still here because You, Hashem, are here.
ברוך שחיינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה
Please accept our sincere wishes to you for a ktiva v'chatima tova and for all of your prayers and wishes to be fulfilled l'tova, for the good.
We join together in prayer for the year to be one of peace, healing, and strength, and for true recognition of Hashem for Klal Yisrael and the entire world.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Moshe Hauer
Executive Vice President
For further Rosh Hashanah reading, please print or read Rabbi Hauer's newest article in Jewish Action:
Sodom, Akeidat Yitzchak and the New York Times: A Yamim Noraim Reflection
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