Rosh Hashanah 5785

Rosh Hashanah 5785

This language thing that we all think we know about is something which is completely unknown and if you take the time to think about it long enough you'll realise that what you say to people is not understood by them, and what they say to you is not understood by you. So even though you think what you're saying makes sense (and it does to you), the other person thinks that what they're saying makes sense (and it does to them). However, it's misunderstood by both parties.

Here are some examples. One person speaks Hebrew, one person speaks English. The person speaking English is translating in their mind from English to Hebrew and then saying words as they are being translated.

The person speaking Hebrew is hearing these words in Hebrew, in English, and translating them to Hebrew in their own mind. So already in that environment you have multiple translations, and especially when you consider that the way to put words together in Hebrew has many different meanings based on the same root of the word. By definition, unless both parties are fluent in grammar, what's being said is not going to be understood.

So what's really going on when two people are talking is that there is a relationship. That relationship is building with the communication that is happening between both parties. And it's not the words necessarily that are being shared that is important, as much as it is the relationship.

This is because you can have two people who use the same words between them, and they have a friendship, and you can have two people that use the same words between them that are confused and misunderstanding each other and therefore feel conflict, Gd forbid. So what's really going on is something that cannot be defined. What's really going on is a deep relationship that comes around or comes about through interactions.

And that deep relationship is higher than any limitation. If you have a look at any relationship, you will see the relationship is not limited. So for example, a relationship between a mother and a child is deeper than any descriptions that anybody can give.

And we see this because the word “mother” is most commonly used in our world as the person who gave birth to the child. However, a mother can also be a foster mother or adopted mother, or it can be somebody that cares for a child, or it could be somebody that treats the child like a mother does, and therefore the child calls that person their mother. So really mother is a descriptive word.

Lets consider some more relationships.

The illusionist does tricks, which from the perspective of the viewer look fantastic. The viewer sees something disappear.  Or the viewer sees something appear from nothing. The viewer sees some phenomenal vision. From the perspective of the viewer, it's wonderful and unknown.

But from the perspective of the illusionist, it's a very simple equation. For example, if I move my hand and the viewer doesn't see me move my hand, then I will create an illusion which is not real from the perspective of the viewer, but it's real from the perspective of the illusionist.

Another example we have is with ventriloquists or puppeteers.  When the audience sees the puppet appearing to talk, it looks like the puppet has a life of its own. It's able to move, it's able to talk, it's able to express ideas, it's able to come up with ideas, it's able to think. Yet in reality, that puppet is simply being controlled by the puppeteer and is really nothing on its own, except a piece of material.

So how does this relate to us and our experiences in the world? Could we say that we are like puppets being controlled through our souls and really our body is nothing for itself and everything comes through the soul? That sounds like a fairly good description of what's going on because there is a relationship between the soul and the body, yet the body is corporeal and the soul is eternal. For all intents and purposes, there is no way that these two entities should be able to interact.

Unless they are being controlled by a higher source which is greater than both the body and the soul. So we are really a composite of something which is known, meaning the body, and something which is unknown, meaning the soul. And neither of them are more powerful than the other one because the soul is infinite, the body is finite.

They are different entities completely. It's only through a higher power they're able to merge and be perceived as one entity, which is something miraculous of itself, but it's not the truth. The truth is the higher reality and that higher reality is not limited and it's not unlimited.

It's beyond any sort of description because neither the infinite nor the finite can grasp what that higher entity is. But both the finite and the infinite know that this higher entity exists because we see it empirically in our lives. And we can relate that to the idea that when it comes to communication, neither party understands the other actually.

But both parties know that there is a relationship and that relationship is the essence of our life. We have a relationship with everything in life. We have a relationship with people, we have a relationship with our surroundings, and we have a relationship with our Creator.

And we have the choice what we do each day of our lives and where we're going to focus our efforts into which relationships we're going to build. We have choices of building relationships with people, we have opportunities to build relationships with things, and the fear that we might have is, how do I build a relationship with that which is not known and not knowable? The answer to this question is in the free choice that we have. We can live in the realm and exist in the realm of limitation, where I build a relationship with people and with things, or we can go out of our comfort zone and live in the realm of building a relationship with my Creator.

And that is the free choice that I have. How do I build that relationship with my Creator? By dealing with things which are divine and godly in the world. And our first expression of what is divine is the Torah, because the Torah is the way that God has chosen to communicate with us and give us a taste of the divine.

And through the Torah, we take physical things and physical relationships and elevate them to being godly.

At times we are vulnerable, that is the time we're able to grow. At times when we don't know what's going on, we're able to move to higher levels.

And this is the idea of teshuva and repentance, because through teshuva and repentance, we're able to shed our previous ways and move into ways that we never knew before. We're able to say, what I did until now was not good enough and therefore I need to upgrade to levels I wasn't aware I was capable of before. And this can come either in a way of proactivity, where I make an active decision to take on more relationship building with my Creator, or alternatively, at some stage in my life and at some stage in my day and at every moment, I realise that I'm capable of much more and therefore abandon my previous ways to achieve more.

And this is the idea of Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is not just the new year, it's the head of the year. And on Rosh Hashanah, we make commitments that the year we're going to have is going to be a year where I leave my comfort zone and exercise my power of free choice to build a relationship with my Creator.

And when I'm sitting in shul and synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, I'm going to be praying that I'm able to build a relationship with my Creator, that goes beyond any relationship that I've ever built before, and that I'm going to fulfil my part of that relationship by coming close to my Creator. And I'm going to pray that I have the strength to leave my limitations behind and move forward in a way that I will have the most fantastic life possible.

Shana tovah and csiva vcasima tovah.

כתריאל ורלו שיל