Sources:
Avot de-Rabbi Natan 1, 5, 6, 8.
366. THE STRING OF GOD
When a person is created, he is tied to God with a string. If he sins, the string breaks. But if he repents during the Days of Awe, the angel Gabriel comes down and makes a knot in the string and ties it and the person is once again tied to God. Because every Jew sins once in a while, his string becomes full of knots. But a string with many knots is shorter than one without knots. Therefore repentance brings a person closer to God.
This is a folk allegory in which a person’s link to heaven is presented as a string, which sin causes to snap. Here the act of making knots, of repairing, is an act of repentance. Ironically, the more knots, the shorter the string, and the shorter the string, the closer to God.
Sources:
IFA 13043.
367. THE MONTH OF TISHREI
The world’s birthday is celebrated on Rosh ha-Shanah, the New Year, in the month of Tishrei, for that is when God created the world and began to reign over it. So too were the patriarchs born in Tishrei, and in Tishrei they died. In Tishrei Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah were conceived. In Tishrei the Israelites were finally set free from Egyptian bondage, and in Tishrei they will be redeemed in the time to come.
This aggadic text argues that the world’s birthday is celebrated in the month of Tishrei, and links that birthday with the creation of the world. Therefore Rosh ha-Shanah is not only the New Year, but also the birthday of the world. Other important events that are said to have taken place in the month of Tishrei are also listed to demonstrate the seminal importance of this month.
Sources:
B. Rosh ha-Shanah 10b-11a, 16a; Sefer Netivot ha-Shalom.
Studies:
Israel in Time and Space: Essays on Basic Themes in Jewish Spiritual Thought by Alexandre Safran.
368. RE-CREATING THE WORLD
Every year, on Rosh ha-Shanah, everything returns to its very beginning. Creation is renewed. All that was created in the beginning comes into being again. Thus each Rosh ha-Shanah the world is re-created.
This myth describes the world being re-created every Rosh ha-Shanah. Here Rosh ha-Shanah is viewed as a ceremony of reaffirmation. Implicit in this interpretation is the suggestion that God, who renews the world, might decide not to renew it.
In Likutei Moharan, Rabbi Nachman describes God as a God of renewal: “Faith is needed—faith that there is a Creator and a Renewer who can create things anew according to His knowledge and judgment.”
Sources:
Sefer Netivot ha-Shalom, quoting a teaching attributed to the Ari; Likutei Moharan 1:2.
369. RENEWING EXISTENCE
It is said that the original creation of the world was only to last six days, but because of the holiness of the Sabbath, the world was renewed for the next six days, and the Sabbath has caused it to be renewed ever since.
Likewise, every Rosh ha-Shanah the existence of the world is renewed. That is because on Rosh ha-Shanah, the birthday of the world, God judges all His creations. It is decided in heaven whether everything in creation is fulfilling the secret purpose of creation, which is known to God alone. For if God determined that creation was acting against God’s intent, there would be no future need of it, and all of existence would come to an end.
This important myth emphasizes the world’s fragility, and that its continuity is not guaranteed, but that it is renewed every Sabbath and every Rosh ha-Shanah. This changes the meaning of Rosh ha-Shanah, which serves as the day of Judgment not only for people, but for the world as well. Those living in the current nuclear age can identify with the acute awareness of the fragility of existence that inspired this myth.
Sources:
B. Rosh ha-Shanah 16b; Sefer Or ha-Hayim; Sefer Netivot ha Shalom.
370. THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
On Rosh ha-Shanah, God sits on the seat of judgment, and the books of the living and the dead are open before him. Then all those who have come into the world pass before God like a flock. This not only includes all of humanity, but every living creature is judged on this day—the Children of the Covenant as well as those not part of the Covenant; those who have free choice as well as those who do not have free choice. No one is left out of this judgment; even the angels are judged on that day, for it is the Day of Judgment.
God made this Day of Judgment to ensure that all abide by the Law. So too did God create the prosecuting angel who comes before Him and demands that all people in the world be judged. So it is that on Rosh ha-Shanah the judgment is written and on Yom Kippur it is signed and sealed.
Rosh ha-Shanah is both the Day of Judgment and the New Year. As the Day of Judgment, it is a solemn occasion on which God makes a judgment about whether we will live or die in the coming year and writes it down. However, it is not signed and sealed until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Yet Rosh ha-Shanah is also the New Year, and as such it is a day of celebration. Both of these contradictory qualities—the solemn and the celebratory—characterize Rosh ha-Shanah, which is also a day of remembrance, a day of sounding the shofar, and a holy convocation.
Sources:
B. Rosh ha-Shanah 16a;Sefer Netivot ha-Shalom.
371. THE HIGH PRIEST ENTERS THE HOLY OF HOLIES
On Yom Kippur the High Priest is surrounded by his brethren, the priests, as well as the Levites and the rest of the people. Before he enters the Holy of Holies, they all pronounce benedictions before him and pray for his welfare. Then a golden cord is attached to his foot, so that if he should die in the Holy of Holies they can drag him out without entering it themselves.
He takes three steps, then another three, then another three, and they all remain where they are and do not follow him. He enters the Holy of Holies and hears the sound of the wings of the cherubim, who sing and beat their wings. Then he burns incense, and the sound of their wings subsides, and there is perfect silence. At that moment a ray of light goes forth, along with the scent of pure balsam, and it pervades the Holy of Holies. Then everything is still, and there is no room for the Accuser.
Then the priest opens his mouth in prayer, and prays with devotion and joy. And when he is finished, the cherubim lift up their wings and begin to sing again. Then the High Priest knows that his prayer has been accepted, and that there is joy above and below.
The Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem was only permitted to be entered one day a year, on Yom Kippur, and then only by the High Priest. This passage from the Zohar describes the great care that was taken to enter there, and the fear and trembling that accompanied this mission, where any error might be fatal. Further, great importance lay in how well this mission went, for if the prayer of the High Priest is accepted, it is a sign that God has decided to show mercy to the people of Israel.
Note the fascinating detail of the golden cord that is tied to the foot of the High Priest, in case it should become necessary to pull him out. This, in itself, shows how much was at stake in entering the Holy of Holies.
Sources:
Zohar 3:67a.
372. THE DAYS OF AWE
During the ten Days of Awe between Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur, God is close to everyone, to every individual, and God hears with compassion the voices that rise in prayer and supplication.
Rosh ha-Shanah is the first of the ten Days of Awe, and the shofar is blown to announce that the time for repentance has begun. This is the time to return from all the evil places where one has gone astray. Let all who desire to return, turn back to the true place of the world, where all is restored to perfection; those who do not will receive the retribution they deserve.
Yom Kippur, the last of the Days of Awe, is called the Sabbath of Sabbaths, as it is said, It shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for you (Lev. 23:32). For while the ten Days of Awe are a process of turning toward heaven, on Yom Kippur God comes down from heaven, close to Israel.
The Days of Awe are the ten days in the month of Tishrei from Rosh ha-Shanah to Yom Kippur. This is a period of intense r
epentance, as God is said to decide a person’s fate for the coming year on Rosh ha-Shanah and to seal that fate on Yom Kippur.
Sources: B. Rosh ha-Shanah 18a; Likutei Etzot Hadash 3; Shem mi-Shemuel; Ta’amei ha-Minhagim.
Studies:
A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice by Isaac Klein, pp. 175-224.
Days of Awe, edited by S.Y. Agnon.
373. LIGHT IS SOWN FOR THE RIGHTEOUS
Before Kol Nidrei a great light comes down from on high, filling all the worlds and the angels and souls to overflowing, as it is said, Light is sown for the righteous (Ps. 97:11). This light collects because of the tears shed before God’s Name.
Here the phrase from Psalms, Light is sown for the righteous (Ps. 97:11), is taken literally, and a great light is described as descending from heaven on Kol Nidrei, the opening prayer that ushers in Yom Kippur. This light, it is understood, is the divine presence filling the world. Indeed, Yom Kippur is often described as a time when God’s scrutiny is greater than ever, but here it is presented in positive terms, as a gift from God for tears of repentance shed over a year of sins.
Sources:
Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz in Yamim Nora’im by S. Y. Agnon.
374. GATHERING SOULS
Rabbi Hayim ben Attar, known as the Or ha-Hayim, would often leave his house after Shabbat was over and spend the whole week in the mountains of Jerusalem. He would take seven challahs with him and a pitcher of milk, and he would return home only on the eve of Shabbat. Then he would start chanting the Song of Songs with great fervor.
While he was reciting the Song of Songs, there was a sound of flying wings all around. Everyone who was present there heard it. And when he was asked about it, the Or ha-Hayim said, “Those are the souls I repaired during the week, while I was in the mountains.”
It was said that even when his wife threw out the crumbs of the challahs, the sound of wings could be heard, for those souls came to share the crumbs of the Tzaddik.
Then, at the time of the Days of Awe, the Or ha-Hayim would leave Jerusalem. He would spend the eve of Rosh ha-Shanah alone in a hut on the shore of Lake Kinneret in the Galilee, and from time to time he could be seen entering the waters.
When someone once asked him why he did this, he replied, “I am assisting the souls that are here to immerse themselves in the Kinneret, to sanctify themselves before the onset of Rosh ha-Shanah.” Those close to the rabbi understood that the Or ha-Hayim was engaged in restoring lost souls at the time of the Days of Awe.
As the myth of the Ari teaches, the most important actions that Jews can take are those of tikkun olam, repairing the world. For rabbis such as the Or ha-Hayim (Rabbi Hayim ben Attar, known by the title of his biblical commentary, which means “the light of life”) and Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, one of the most important duties of repair concerned raising up the souls of the dead who have somehow become trapped in this world. This theme is also found in “The Field of Souls,” p. 168. In “Gathering Souls,” the Or ha-Hayim does this holy work during the week by going off into the mountains alone, and he returns only for the Sabbath, when he is followed by flocks of the souls he has set free. The Or ha-Hayim was the most famous Jewish sage of his time living in the Holy Land. The Hasidim believed that the Ba’al Shem Tov had been barred by heaven from going to the Holy Land because the combination of his merits and those of the Or ha-Hayim, along with those of the Holy Land, would force the coming of the Messiah. This suggests that the Or ha-Hayim was regarded by the Hasidim as the equal of the Ba’al Shem Tov.
Sources:
IFA 477.
375. A SCAPEGOAT FOR AZAZEL
And from the Israelite community Aaron shall take two he-goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Aaron is to offer his own bull of sin offering, to make expiation for himself and for his household. Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the Lord and the other marked for Azazel. Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the Lord, which he is to offer as a sin offering; while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the Lord, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.
The custom of sending a scapegoat out into the desert as an offering to Azazel is clearly a remnant of a pagan ritual.
In Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 51, God identifies the scapegoat as an atonement for Himself: “This he-goat shall be an atonement for Me, because I have diminished the size of the moon.” See “The Quarrel of the Sun and the Moon,” p. 112, which concludes with God diminishing the moon. We should not overlook the strangeness of God feeling the need to atone. This is reminiscent of Jung’s portrayal of God in Answer to Job. This is one more example of the kind of personification of God so commonly found in rabbinic sources, where God also studies Torah, suffers, mourns, puts on tallit and tefillin and prays.
Who was Azazel, to whom the scapegoat was sent? This appears to be a remnant of a pagan myth in which Azazel was some kind of desert god. Thus the scapegoat represents a sacrifice to the forces of evil. In modern Israel, the phrase “Lekh le Azazel” means “Go to hell!”
A description of the sacrifice of the scapegoat is found in B. Yoma 67a: “On Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) a goat was thrown off a high cliff in the desert, to atone for the sins of the Jews. A red ribbon was hung up in the Temple on that day. When the goat was thrown off the cliff, the ribbon turned white.” This description links the Temple and the sacrifice of the scapegoat, viewing it as a kind of remote Temple offering. The transformation of the ribbon from red to white confirms this.
Another scapegoat sacrifice is described in the Talmud (B. Hullin 60a). A goat was offered in the Temple on every Rosh Hodesh, the first of the month, as a sin offering brought to atone for God’s shrinking the moon, a decision that God later came to regret. (See Numbers 28:15). Therefore, on every Rosh Hodesh, when the moon is small, a sin offering was brought to atone for that decision.
Sources:
Leviticus 16:5-10.
Studies:
“Azazel” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, pp. 128-131.
“Azazel in Early Jewish Tradition” by Robert Helm.
376. SOUNDING THE SHOFAR
Why is the shofar sounded on Rosh ha-Shanah? Because God said: “Sound a ram’s horn before Me so that I remember on your behalf the binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham, and account it to you as if you had bound yourselves on the altar before Me.”
What is the purpose of the long and short blasts of the shofar? Some say the purpose is to confuse Satan, the Accuser. What would happen if the shofar were not sounded at the beginning of the year? Evil would befall by the end of it, because the Accuser has not been confused.
Others say that God made up a secret language, that of the ram’s horn, which is only understood by Him, so that the Accuser should not know the pleas of His children. And all those who know the mystery of that secret language walk in the light of the countenance of God. For that is the very light cast on the first day, when God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3).
The sounding of the shofar causes God to rise up from the Throne of Justice and move over to sit in the Throne of Mercy.
God Himself will sound the shofar at the End of Days, when He leads the exiles of Israel into the Promised Land, and when the Messiah reveals himself, as it is said, My Lord God shall sound the ram’s horn (Zech. 9:14). That is why, when we hear the sound of the shofar, we beseech God to rebuild the Temple.
This myth clearly demonstrates the linkage between myth and ritual. Here the ritual of sounding the shofar on Rosh ha-Shanah invokes the myth of the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. The continuity is the shofar, the ram’s horn, taken from the ram sacrificed in place of Isaac. For the midrash recounts how Moses blew the first shofar at Mount Sinai, while it is said that Elijah will blow the second of the ram’s two horns at the time of the coming o
f the Messiah. And the act of performing the ritual of sounding the shofar serves to remind God of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, and thus for God to account it to those performing the ritual as if they themselves had been bound before God.
The belief, found in Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, that the sounding of the shofar causes God to move from His Throne of Justice to the Throne of Mercy is an example of theurgy.
The Zohar identifies Yom Kippur as the day Isaac was bound on the altar. That is why it is fitting to read the portion about the binding of Isaac during the Afternoon Prayer, in order to recall the merits of Isaac. Genesis Rabbah 56 quotes Abraham as saying to God: “May it be Your will that when the children of Israel commit transgressions, that the binding of Isaac may then be remembered for their benefit, and may You be filled with compassion for them.”
Here, once again, we find the theme of confusing or silencing Satan, the Accuser, so that he cannot testify against Israel. God, who sides with His children, Israel, against the Accuser during the Days of Awe, has created a secret language, that of the shofar. The long and short blasts communicate Israel’s desire for God’s compassion, but confuse the Accuser, who does not understand the secret language. See “Sounding the Shofar,” p. 296 and the accompanying note. See also “The Master Key” in Gabriel’s Palace, pp. 198-199.
The notion that God made up a secret language, that of the ram’s horn, is quite fascinating. The ram’s horn is blown on Rosh ha-Shanah (when all Jews are required to be present to hear it sounded), and at other times in strict patterns of short and long blasts. Identifying these as a secret language is an acknowledgment that the meaning of these blasts is unknown, except to God.
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