Days of Awe
Posted on September 22, 2009
Filed Under Antisemitism, Congo, Dictatorship, Freedom, Freedom from Religion, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of speech, Freedom of the Press, Global Markets, Global economy, Human Rights, Human Rights Council, Infidel-o-Phobia, International, Islam as a political movement, Islamic barbarians, Islamic intolerance of other religions, Islamic society, Islamic terrorism, Islamist arrogance, Islamist intransigence, Islamist terror, IslamoFascism, IslamoFascist terror, Islasmic terror, Jewish New Year, Jooz, Middle East, Muslim audacity, Muslims, Political Correctness, Political humor, Political lies, Radical Islam, Religion, Religious intolerance, Rosh Hashana, Sudan, UN, UNHRC, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, West, Yom Kippur, anti western hatred, arrogance, arrogant elites, bigotry, bigots, dhimmi, discrimination, economic meltdown, economy, ethnicity, financial, financial intitutions, financial markets, foreign policy, free society, freediom of religious choice, freedom of religious choice, hatred, hatred of Christians, hatred of Jews, hatred of the West, historical revisionism, hypocrisy, ignorance of history, ignoring the facts, infidels, intimidation, intolerance, intransigence, islam, judaism, political Islam, political arrogance, political corruption, political cowardice, political dhimmitude, political eunuchs, political freedoms, political fumbling, political hypocrisy, political incompetence, political ineptitude, political intimidation, political naivete, political opportunism, political terrorism, political violence, political weapons, politicians, politics, prejudice, radical Islamic terrorism, rape as a political weapon, religious harassment, religious hatred, religious intimidation, religious violence, rule of law, ruthless dictatorship, savages, selling political favors, spiritual values, spirituality, tyranny, tyrants, women, women as chattel, women's rights | 2 Comments
The Hebrew calendar is celebrating the year 5770. It started this past Saturday (Friday eve) with the first day of Rosh Hashana (New Year, literally Head of the Year). That day also started the Ten Days of Repentance which culminate on the most solemn Jewish day – Yom Kippur. During the previous Jewish month, Elul, Jews search inward, they meditate on what they accomplished and what they failed in. During the Days of Repentance, we ask the Almighty’s forgiveness and understanding.
As I look at the political events that engulfed the world since last Rosh Hashana, the world has accomplished very little, it has in fact gotten worse! Last year I wrote a post for Rosh Hashana and one for Yom Kippur, with very minor adjustements, I’m afraid they still very much apply, I’m afraid that I must still by asking the same questions…
The world is embroiled in war, tyrants walk around arrogant and defiant, massacres in almost every continent are mostly ignored by the world community and the MSM never appears to believe such news are fit to print… The United Nations Human Rights Council, seems to concern itself with anything except the trampling of human rights around the globe. Women’s rights are of little concern to a world that prides itself of its extreme liberalness and unheard of freedoms, while rape is used as a political weapon in the Congo, in Sudan, etc… and women are merely chattel to husbands, fathers, sons and brothers in a major portion of this planet. In many a country, infidels are either not free to follow their religious beliefs or are constantly harrased. To say the least, it is obvious that in spite of an enlightened 21st century we really have never truly evolved from the atrocities of the Barbarian Age even as our weapons and rhetoric are more sophisticated, more ”intellectual.”
Frankly, the world at this moment with all its freedoms and all its horrors is far from ideal. Political ideologies, masquerading as religion, pose new threats to the free world and threaten to destroy all the hard fought for rights and freedoms of the Western world. Meanwhile the West seems to have lost its soul and wonders like a drunkard in its search for meaning, coexistence, peace…
Tonight, gentle reader, Jews around the world begin the celebration of Rosh Hashana – the Jewish New Year. No, it is not a time filled with drunken parties and silly noise-making but rather a time where one searches the deepest crevices, the most hidden places of one’s existence and asks oneself why, how, when, what? Why did I fail to do all that I set out to do? How could I be so lazy, so complacent and not try harder… or at least just try? When will I wake from this lethargy and do my duty as a human, to my Lord, to my fellow humans, to myself? What will it take for me to wake up, while I still am capable of waking up?
The answers are often shameful, sometimes gut wrenching. Nevertheless they afford every Jew a chance to reach out of his/her comfortable shell and do that which he or she is capable of doing, of reaching that individual’s potential if the individual truly wants it. But sometimes, even if in our prayers we take firm resolve to make a difference, even when the tears of repentance stream from the deepest recesses of the heart, in a few days we settle back in the comfort of emptiness and inaction. More often than not, the answers are too hard, too strenuous on our pampered selves, for us to truly rise above the comfort of merely being discomforted by the world around us or take any action to change it.
In the Rosh Hashana prayers there is one I must particularly single out as I pronounce it with heavy trepidation in my heart as the clarion call of the Shofar is sounded:
Attah Zocher, You remember the deeds done in the Universe and You recall all the creatures fashioned since the earliest times. Before You all hidden things are revealed and the multitude of mysteries since the beginning of Creation, for there is no forgetfulness before Your Throne of Glory and nothing is hidden before Your eyes. You remember everything ever done and not a single creature is hidden from you. Everything is revealed and known before You, Lord our God, Who keeps watch and sees to the very end of all generations, when You bring about a decreed time of rememberance for every spirit and soul to be recalled, for abundant deeds and a multitude of creatures withoutt limit to be remembered….
[...] Regarding countries, it is said on this day which is destined for the sword and which for peace, which for hunger and which for abundance; and creatures are recalled on it to remember them for life or death. Who is not recalled on this day? For the rememberance of everything fashioned comes before You: everyone’s deed and mission, the accomplishments of man’s activity, man’s thoughtsand schemes, and the motives behind man’s deeds.
May this coming year, 5769 [now 5770] in the Jewish calendar, bring about that very elusive, very prayed for, long hoped for, universally expected peace. May each one of us walking this earth, know no more strife, no more hunger, no more pain. KTIVAH VECHATIMA TOVAH – MAY [WE ALL] BE INSCRIBED AND SEALED FOR GODNESS, may abundance and health break rampant, may universal peace bathe this earth and the realization of one’s fondest dreams bring sweetness and the total banishment of sorrow to every one on this lowly plane of existence.
On the evening of this coming Sunday, September 27th, Yom Kippur starts. Last year I posted the following:
This evening starts the holiest, most solemn day in the Jewish calendar – Yom Kippur. Ten days earlier, the first of the two days of Rosh Hashana – the Hebrew New Year – marked the day, when according to the Jewish tradition everyone’s fate for the coming year is inscribed in the Heavenly ledgers. Yom Kippur is the day when whatever was written (on Rosh Hashana) stays as is or is changed, but in either case fate becomes sealed.
In one of the most awe inspiring prayers of the day, Jews intone theses words: …mi yichie umi yamut (who will live and who will die)… mi bamayim umi ba’esh (who by water and who by fire)… mi ye’ani umi ye’asher (who will become impoverished and who will be rich)… Many take these words literally and, as you can imagine, after hours of praying the tears often flow freely as these sentences are reached. But there is also an alternate interpretation. Based on what? At the end of this specific prayer, everyone announces at the top of their voice: uTshuvah, uTfilah, uTzdakah ma’avirin et ro’a hagzerah! (And Repentance, and Prayer, and Charity remove the negative Judgment!). The question then becomes, how is it possible that the Infinite, Almighty God allows Himself to be swayed by a mere mortal? If He is the beginning and the end (in other words, time in our human terms does not apply to Him as what we perceive as past, present and future all unfold simultaneously before Him), if He is the All-Knowing and understands that in spite of broken hearts and fully sincere repentance, the next morning we find ourselves again doing the same deeds, having the same thoughts, the same feelings, the same lusts and jealousies, how can He possibly allow our temporary repentance to change His mind?
The answer was given by the Sages of the Talmud when they taught that even with the sword at one’s throat, a person should not give up hope. It means that in these Days of Awe we are assigned a specific fate which, as a mark of Cain, shows what may become of us. It means that by truly mending our ways we become worthy of a different fate because we are longer the same person, it means that only our actions, our thoughts and the effort we expend to overcome our negative passions will remove the specific mark.
As we look around the world, between the current economic meltdown and the forces that wish to destroy the West… the horizon looks rather bleak. Evil seems to be ascendant, the western nations are plagued by the cancer within, wittingly or unwittingly, working for their destruction. Western politicians of every political stripe, are guilty of the current situation whether for personal gain, for personal glory or merely because of absolutely naive misguidance. The world, as we know it, is marked for a major conflagration, but we may not despair, we can not relax our stand against those who would destroy us. As we westerners bear the mark, so do our enemies! If we just sit back with folded arms groping our way in the shadows, confused by the darkness surrounding us, the mark will surely become our fate. If we rise above our confusion, if we recover our lost spiritual values and shed the cynicism, the dark shadows will dissipate. That new light will bring hope, hope will translate into resolve, resolve will become strength and raise us from this stupor. We will then, with renewed vigor, as new different people rise up against the enemy within and without. The mark of Cain will dissipate and a new era of health, prosperity and general wellbeing will replace it. Is the West up to the task or will the mark of Cain become final?
The circumstances the world finds itself in have barely changed, except for the worse. The questions I asked last year remain the same… Will the west continue to move in its present direction, rushing headlong to its demise, or will it wake up and reverse course? Mi yishafel umi ye’arum? Who will be degraded and who will be exalted?
Chaim
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2 Responses to “Days of Awe”
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Webrings
Hello Chaim !
Thank you for this sobering & informative article. I have found it to be very inspiring – I needed that today!
Susan
Hello Chaim
I fear my friend the west is on a head long colision with the forces that be. I myself being of the west am sobered by many events I am now more aware of. This article is even more so an eye opener.
Being of the christian faith, I see things through the words of the prophets in the Bible, and am deeply concerned for all nations and peoples. My God and the God of Abraham are one in the same. Peace and blessings I wish for Israel, and pray for her as much troubles are for all in the days that follow.
I thank you for this informative article and I regret that there may not be the hope that many seek. God is at the head of all things, and His will shall be done.
Peace to you
a friend