Friday at sunset begins Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the first of the High Holidays. As a child it was one of my favorite* Jewish Holidays. It was an extra day off school, we got apples & honey, they would blow the Shofar** at Synagogue, and there was my Mom’s brisket*** – may we do it some justice.
Traditionally Rosh Hashanah is the day of judgment. This is the day that our sins are measured and God decides if we should live another year. I suppose in that way, God is like the US Government, contracts run in one year increments. In theory, if you are righteous, you are given an automatic pass. If your wicked your fate is sealed. For the other 99.99999%**** you have 10 days until Yum Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to get your act together and repent. I personally don’t believe God works that way. For one thing I doubt there is such a thing as the truly righteous or truly wicked and for another I have never found Death to be particularly discriminating; horrible people live and good people die.
Judaism has a different concept of hell than Christianity. There is no eternal damnation, the closest concept is Gehenna, but even that comes with an annual review and opportunity for release. One of the things I find beautiful about religion is that is can work on so many levels. Let’s face it, many people do need a punishment/reward system. It is not a bad thing, it is just where they are at in their own development. This is one of the ways the Jewish religion motivates righteous behavior. While not eternal damnation, if you truly believe you are going to die in the next year if you don’t change your ways, that can be a pretty powerful motivator. But as I said, I don’t believe that is how life really works. In fact on a basic level, righteousness committed in the name of self preservation is inherently selfish. But that is actually OK because it is more than just controlling the masses; “walking the walk” and “talking the talk” helps people internalize change. It helps them to grow and become the kind of people who do good not because of a religious mandate, but because it is an essential part of who they have become.
Shana Tova
* not counting Chanukah
** Ram’s Horn
*** My mom was not known for her cooking but man could she make a brisket.
**** Just made that % up
This content is published under the Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.
