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Rosh HaShanah Opening 5768 Not Young Anymore Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon, Temple Emanu-El of Tucson, AZ
L'shana Tova! You may be wondering about the absence of our excellent Associate Rabbi, Ben Sharff, from our services tonight. He is leading our pioneering Halutzim Northwest services tonight, the first complete Reform High Holy Day services in Northwest Tucson, part of a program we began at Temple Emanu-El way back in 2001, and which has grown to a new stage of maturity now. We will enjoy Rabbi Sharff's presence here tomorrow for Rosh HaShanah morning, when Rabbi Sandy Seltzer will lead services in the Northwest. This also marks the 9th year that Marjorie Hochberg and I have co-officiated for the High Holy Days. It is a pleasure to continue to work closely with Ms. Temple Emanu-El, and to enjoy her professionalism and friendship daily, and over these Yamim Nora'aim. And finally, I want to welcome my father, Rabbi and Cantor Baruch Cohon, to our bimah this evening and through these High Holy Days. This is the eighth consecutive year that I have had the privilege of sharing the pulpit with my dad, and I am honored to be able to share l'dor vador, from generation to generation, these holiest of days with my father, teacher, and friend. I also would like to welcome my mother, Claire Cohon, back to Tucson. It is always good to be with family on the holidays, especially in these Days of Awe. So, speaking of mothers, a mom comes into her son's bedroom to wake him up to come to temple. "Oh, ma," he says, "I don't want to go to shul today. It's boring and no one likes me there. Give me two good reasons to get up and go." "I'll give you two good reasons," his mother answers. "You're 46 years old, and you are the rabbi!" I must tell you that there is no truth to the rumor that this is a true story about my mother and myself… So, a personal question for you: just when do you go from being the young something to the old something? That is, perhaps more to the point this year, when do you go from being the young rabbi to the old rabbi? When I began in this field I was the young rabbi, trying to assist people with problems that I could only imagine; now, some years later, I find myself with younger assistants and associates, counseling people who actually have less life experience than I for the first time. It's strange, and disconcerting. Darn it, I liked being the young rabbi, the upstart, the one who could change things in new and fresh ways, and be forgiven, because "he's such a young man." Oh, well. Di yorn flegn, as the Yiddish expression would have it; the years fly by. And I am no longer young… In fact, there is currently a rumor that my dad comes out for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur each year just so I can continue to be young Rabbi Cohon. But, since most people think he actually is more youthful than I am, it's clearly not working. Aging is a part of life, and we confront it each year at Rosh HaShanah. We grow older, and we change. And not always for the better. We are no longer as young as we were; some of us are no longer young at all. I was actually going to take out my new reading glasses at this point in my talk to demonstrate that I need them now, after years of denial. I was going to take out my reading glasses, that is, but right when I got up here I realized that I had forgotten to bring them with me. Yet another sign of aging… As we age, we come to realize that there are more and more things, over time that we regret. With age sometimes comes wisdom, which is good, but with wisdom comes mature regret… We wish we hadn't done certain things. We wish we had done some things we didn't. We see the two roads that diverged and wonder wistfully about the path we didn't take… You know, Rosh HaShanah is exactly the time when we have the opportunity to assess which way we have been going, and which way we will go from now on. It's the day set aside, at the beginning of Ten Days designated for this purpose, to start deciding what we parts of our actions the past year we truly regret. What did we do wrong? Where did we go off track? How can we come back to the path we wish to be on? In a way, this brand new year is a good time to think, not as a young person, but as a grown-up: how can we make this next year, 5768, into a better one? How can we repair those things in our lives that our broken? How can we find our own holy path? Over this Rosh HaShanah, over these Days of Awe and High Holiness, may we each come to understand that, young or not, we have much to learn, and teach, and do, in order to make this a better year. L'shana Tova.
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