It is Up to You

Where do you turn for guidance? Do you read The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal? Do you watch Fox News or CNN?

In truth, none of them are that reliable. Whether fake news or real, we believe that the most authentic, relevant and Divine wisdom emerges not from the pages of a paper or on a screen but from the wellsprings of the eternal Torah.

The Bible and the Prophets are a gift as they withstand the test of time and the politics of the moment and offer unfiltered guidance for humanity.

It is why we are obligated to make Torah study a daily practice. Not simply to know the history or the laws contained within but to grapple with the meaning and message of the text.

Today, I want to study with you an eternally relevant pearl of wisdom from the Prophets that we read every Rosh Hashanah.

We read about a woman named Chana who yearns for a child. Together with her husband Elkana, she makes an annual pilgrimage to the Tabernacle in Shilo to pray. Year after year she makes the trip yet she remains barren. Eventually, she is blessed with a child, whom she names, Shmuel . She dedicates the child to serve in the Tabernacle and ultimately, he becomes the great prophet Samuel.

The choice for Haftorah is not arbitrary. It is selected to be read every year in synagogues worldwide in perpetuity.

Why is this story chosen on Rosh Hashanah? The most well known answer is that according to the Talmud, God remembered Chana on Rosh Hashanah and made it possible for her to conceive.

However, this answer is problematic.

There are other significant events in the prophets that occurred on Rosh Hashana .

First, another barren woman is blessed with a child on Rosh Hashana. In the book of Kings, we read about Elisha the prophet, the disciple of Elijah, who prays for a childless woman in Shuman and she gives birth to child.

Another major event occurs on Rosh Hashanah in the time of Ezra the scribe. It has monumental impact. Ezra was living in the land of Israel post the destruction of the first Temple. Unfortunately without the central presence of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Jews who remained in the holy land began to assimilate and abandon the faith. In a heroic effort, Ezra gathers the Jews who remained and taught them the Torah. He reignited their commitment to the tradition and Jewish identity. This stirring event of recommitment to the covenant occurred on Rosh Hashanah. This would seem to be a very worthwhile focus for the Haftorah.

After all, on Rosh Hashana, we are coronating God as King and what better way than to celebrate a recommitment of the Jews to God. Yet, instead, the Sages chose the story of Chana.

What is the message for today?

Let us take a moment to look at the text as there is much more than meets the eye.

When we first meet Chana she is in great distress. The Torah records that God had “closed off her womb.” She is going up to Shiloh to Tabernacle with her husband Elkana who is joined by his second wife Penina. Penina has a lot of children and Chana has none.

Year and after year, the entire family would ascend to the Tabernacle for the pilgrimage festival. Elkanah would bring offerings and he would give a portion to Penina and all of her children. Elkanah loves Chana dearly and he tries to make her feel better by giving her a double portion of the offering.

This scenario continues for 19 years. To make matters worse, Penina torments Chana.

Penina would ask her "Did you buy your older boy a scarf, a shirt, and a robe?"

She would rise up early and say to Chana: "Aren't you getting up to wash your children's faces so that they can go to school?" And at midday, she would say to Chana: "Aren't you getting up to receive your children who have returned from school?"

Chana faced constant difficulties in her day-to-day encounters with her environment. Not a moment went by that she did not experience her barrenness and the feeling of deficiency that accompanies it. She lived in a house that full of the din and noise of children; the sounds of their laughter and their quarrels echoed throughout the house but not one of the children was the fruit of her womb.

Year after year, Elkana wants to show her how much he cares her by giving her a double portion. Then the Prophet records that Elkana tried to comfort her with words. He wanted to show her how much he loved his beloved wife Chana.

He says to her, "Chana, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?" (I Shemuel 1:8)

Chana responds to Elkanah words by getting up from the table after eating and drinking. The prophets record, “With an embittered soul, she turns to God in prayer and cries from the depth of heart.”

Why now after all of these years does she turn to God in prayer?

Something changed inside of her. Chana underwent a personal transformation.

It is this metamorphosis that we celebrate and commemorate every Rosh Hashanah.

Want happened?

Until this point, she was passive and a victim of circumstance.

She lacked a child in her life and expected her husband to notice her anguish and pray for her.

Now she realizes that her future is not dependant on her family, friends or even Eli the high priest. The loneliness reveals itself to her in all its intensity; nobody understands her – not those who are closest to her and not those who are closest to God. She is forced to deal with the difficulties of childlessness on her own, with the emotional powers that she can draw from her inner wellsprings and with her own personal strengths, without any help from the outside.

It her personal day of judgment, when the book of the living and the book of the dead lay open for her. She must stand on her own and turn to the King, King of kings, all by herself, with her own tears.

Chana’s heroism was that in the crucible of her pain and loneliness she realizes that God has never abandoned her, As such; she needs to seize control of her destiny. If God believes in her, how can she not believe in herself?

It is this message which we memorialize on Rosh Hashanah for eternity.

She realizes that until this time she was relying on others to help her get a dream of having a child. It was not working. She recognizes that she cannot leave her spiritual welfare to someone else.

Nor can we.

Chana’s story is a wakeup call for us to realize that in order for us truly to grow in our relationship to God and in our potential; we need to take full responsibility for it. We cannot blame our environment for a failure to connect as Jews. We cannot rely upon our others to be our proxy for God.

We too must take our spiritual destiny into our own hands. It is not enough to say my children, or my grandchildren, the Rabbi, my friends; they will be my proxy for my personal growth and the Jewish future. We cannot outsource our relationship to God.

We read the story on Rosh Hashanah because her message is not about the end result. There are other stories of barren women miraculously conceiving a child. It is about understanding that with God at your side, anything is possible. She possessed the power within.

Chana becomes the model for taking charge of her spiritual destiny. In the crucible of her pain, she finally stands alone before God. She realizes she can no longer rely on others. It is her personal triumph of the spirit.

She realizes that God has never abandoned her and she possesses the power to both pray and be God’s partner. She has found her voice.

Each of us, like Chana, stands alone before God on Rosh Hashanah. We too must find our voice.

As the liturgy states, we walk as sheep one by one before God. This is not meant as a haunting metaphor but an inspiring one. The concept of the Day of Judgment by God is an affirmation that God loves us and cares for each of us. He is reaching out to me and you and saying I believe in you.

The question is whether we believe that God believes in us?

Every day, we recite the prayer, Ahava Raba, a great love God loves towards us. He is our greatest cheerleader and believes in us. In turn, he is encouraging us to believe in ourselves.

We are all bound by the same covenant at Sinai. We all part of the chain of Jewish tradition. Yet, each of us is totally unique. My strengths, gifts, challenges are one of kind. He asking us today, “what is going to be your spiritual imprint?” “What are you going to do to grow spiritually, and reveal your unique light?”

We cannot rely on the connection of our ancestors, our parents, a spouse…we can have to forge our own relationship with God and Torah. What does Judaism mean for me? What is God calling upon for me?

Every day is an opportunity for growth. If we are blessed with a new day, it is a new personal spiritual responsibility.

Pablo Casals was a Cellist from the region of Catalonia in Spain, who passed away at the age of 97 in 1973. Over the course of his storied career, he played for monarchs including Queen Victoria and Maria Christina of Spain, and Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy, winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. Throughout his life, he performed and gave master classes all over the world, until very late in life- his last performance was in Yerushalaim, two weeks before his death. Pablo Casals was one of the greatest musicians ever to hold a Cello, with many of his recordings considered the standard, yet remarkably, even with his phenomenal artistry and abilities, he never stopped practicing, even late in life. Indeed, there is a story told of him that even when he was 93 years old, he continued to practice three hours a day. When asked why- after all, he was one of the greatest cellists ever to live- he replied, “I think I’m beginning to see some improvement…”

With God by our side, our potential is limitless.

Rosh Hashanah is a vote of confidence in each of us.

Think about it for a minute. There are so many grand and pressing issues for the world. North Korea, Iran, Poverty, War and Peace. We might ask “Does God really care about me?” The answer is an emphatic yes.

King David himself wonders about this quandary. He proclaims – When I behold the heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, I wonder what is man that you should remember him and be mindful of him? David answers his own question by saying, “Yet, you have made Man a little less than the angels and crowned him with your honor and glory.”

We come to synagogue on Rosh Hashana as an affirmation that God cares about and is counting on us. No human being is unimportant in God’s eyes. God says today…I am waiting for you. I want to hear your voice. In a friendship, the relationship must be two ways. If one person is always calling and the other never picks up the phone, makes any overtures, the relationship becomes frayed. Today, God is reminding us that he is here. Every day, he literally breathes life into us. He infuses us with renewed potential. This is His gift. Our gift back to God is what we do with hat potential.

This idea is interwoven in the fabric of Judaism. The last mitzvah in the Torah is for each Jew to write a Torah scroll. Think about it for a minute. Why is it necessary? Why can I not rely upon the Torah passed down to me from my parents or grandparents? The answer is that God charges you and me with forging a personal relationship with Him.

No one of us is exactly the same. The Torah may be the same but my chelek, my contribution is unique.

I am reminded of the story of an accomplished writer who was working on a biography of the famous symphony conductor, Arturo Toscanini. One day the writer called Toscanini and asked if he could come over the following night. The great maestro told him that he could not meet that night, as he was planning to listen to a concert on the radio of an orchestra that he had conducted himself the previous year. The writer asked if he could join him and discuss the concert after it was over. Toscanini agreed on condition that he would not disturb him during the concert.

The next night they listened together to the orchestra's performance, and when it was finished the writer said, "Wasn't that magnificent?" "No, it wasn't", Toscanini answered sternly. "There were supposed to be 120 musicians, among them 15 violinists, but only 14 were present." The writer could not believe his ears, but did not dare question the great maestro. However, he wanted to investigate to verify if Toscanini was right. The next morning, he called the director of the orchestra and asked him how many musicians were supposed to be in the orchestra, and how many had actually shown up. The director told him that there were supposed to be 120 musicians, but one of the 15 violinists called in sick. The writer was in awe and could not understand how Toscanini could have noticed that one violin was missing.

That night he returned to Toscanini and asked him how he was able to discern the missing violin in an orchestra of 120 musicians. Toscanini answered with authority and said, "There is a great difference between you and me. As part of the general audience, everything sounds great to you. But I, being a conductor, must know every sound that comes forth from the orchestra. When I heard the concert, I noticed that some notes were missing, and I knew immediately that one violinist was missing."

Every note makes a difference

We may not discern the difference when we or someone else is studying Torah or observing a commandment, for we are all part of the general audience. But to the Conductor of the World Symphony, Who knows every note that should come forth, to Him every word of Torah that is studied, every prayer that is uttered, and every mitzvah that is fulfilled, makes a difference.

We are all musicians in God's Orchestra. In an orchestra, the drummer is not expected to play the cello, the cellist should not play the flute, and the flutist cannot play the violin. Each one must play his own instrument to the best of his ability. This is how it is in real life. We are all different, and we must all perform with the talents, mindset and personalities we were blessed with. We should perform on the highest level of our capability for the Conductor of the World Symphony.

Cosmic impact

Every time we sit down to study Torah, fulfill a mitzvah, or pray, it has a cosmic impact both down here in this world, as well as in the upper spiritual world. Chana teaches us that each of us plays an instrument that plays cosmic music. Every day. God awaits our song, our contribution. He is waiting to hear our voice.

The essence of today and this season is about personal growth. The heroes of Judaism aren’t the ones who were born great. They’re the ones who became great by taking risks, surviving trials, overcoming handicaps, staying firm in their sense of purpose and strong in their resilience. That’s Moses. That’s David. That’s Hannah. That’s Ruth.

That is me and that is you. That is the enduring message of today’s Haftorah.

Let us remember the words of Isaiah

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Nothing is impossible for God, so use His strength.

May God grant all of us the inspiration and courage to take control of our personal spiritual life each and every day.