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The WheelSeptember 2003From the Desk of Rabbi Freelund"Everything is so different, but I haven't changed." This sentiment, or one close to it has crossed the mind of many as the years pass by. When we look in the mirror it is sometimes hard to see the signs of age as they accumulate, as we instead prefer the safe conception we have of ourselves as ten or even twenty years younger than we really are. It is not until we call upon our bodies to make an effort that they canít quite accommodate that we are forced to admit to ourselves that we really have changed. At that point, we can assure ourselves with the thought, "At least I'm still young of heart and mind!" Change is difficult to accept within ourselves, so we take the easy road and note instead how much the world has changed around us. The hard road is to come to the acceptance that the world has in fact changed only minimally, yet we have changed incredibly over the course of our lives. Rosh Hashanah can play an important role in helping to reach this understanding. As Rosh Hashanah comes, it issues an invitation to consider the time that we experience as a wheel, repeating the same turns over and over again. This year will look much the same as the last and much the same as the one before. It begins with a service that has changed little over the centuries, attended by the same families and their descendants. We speak the same words and connect our souls with melodies that speak to us because they have not changed for so long. The differences we do find are in our personal circumstances, not the great and wonderful world. On Rosh Hashanah we note the passage of time, not by reflecting upon the new technology developed since the last year, the changes in the political constellations of various governments, or the way in which wealth moved from one person to another. Instead, we engage in the act of heshbon nefesh, taking an inventory of our souls, plumbing our own depths to find the ways in which we changed and moved away from being the best that we could be. On Rosh Hashanah we also commemorate what has not changed and never will: God. We measure ourselves against an unchanging God and the unchanged demands that God has placed upon us: to take every opportunity to change ourselves for the better, to treat others in an ever better and more respectful manner, and to teach others by our words and our example that a better way of living is possible. All of this becomes apparent when we measure our changing and growing selves against the unchanging and constant God. L'shanah Tovah Tikateivu, May all of you be written for a good year. May all of us accept our myriad changes as we make our way through this wondrous and familiar world. |
