Here we are, at the last 8 hours or so of this Ten Day voyage, the Ten Days of Teshuvah. I have suggested that we look at these days, commonly called the Ten Days of Repentance, as the Ten Days of Answering. The word “teshuvah” has many meanings, including ‘repentance’ and ‘return.’ It also means ‘answer’ or ‘response’ and ‘the act of answering and responding.’

In these ten days we are called upon to recognize that we must offer better answers to some fundamental questions, questions that we have heard since the beginning of time.

On Rosh Ha-Shanah and last night I set forth a number of those original questions as presented by the Torah’s first accounting of human life. These are, therefore, to be understood as questions that first came up at the dawn of our consciousness as human beings. And the questions can be understood as following one from the former, and as building in complexity and urgency.

Our Torah places us in the Garden of Eden as our starting point. The first question we had to answer, as we stood in the middle of that paradise, was: “Can’t we have it all?” And we tried to take everything we could see, including the fruit from the Tree, and we discovered, to our pain and shame, that we had given the wrong answer.

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Tonight begins the tenth and last day of the Ten Days of Teshuvah – the Ten Days of Answering. On Rosh Ha-Shanah I suggested that we consider the Torah’s first questions asked by and of human beings as the questions to which, on these days, we are called to give our answers.

And we saw that the Torah mentioned 2 questions first asked back in the Garden of Eden. The first was a question we asked ourselves – “Can’t we have it all?” and the second question was asked of us by God – “Where are you?”

Our answer to the first question was a defiant – “Yes, of course we can have it all.” And we ate from the fruit of the forbidden tree. Right then and there we supposedly learned that we had given the wrong answer. But it is unclear whether we really have accepted for ourselves the right answer. Nor have we done such a great job in understanding what the right answer is supposed to lead us toward, beyond avoidance of prohibited fruit from a certain tree in a mythical paradise.

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Shanah Tovah U-m’tiqah! A Sweet, Good Year to all!

They say that when Gertrude Stein, the literary experimenter and self-hating Jew, was close to death, almost her last words were: “What’s the answer?”

This is something many of us wonder about, especially when we are confronted with our mortality. Rosh Ha-Shanah is such a time. The beginning of a new year makes us acutely conscious of time’s passing. Many of us hope that our religious tradition can give us the answer, or, at least, an answer. We seek answers to settle our minds and calm our spirits. Questions can engender feelings of dis-ease. But answers promise us a sense of wholeness. So we hope to start the New Year refreshed, restored, and reassured with an answer.

And, indeed, Rosh Ha-Shanah kicks off a period of ten days that are called in our tradition – Aseret Y’mei Teshuvah – often translated as the “Ten Days of Repentance,” but more literally meaning the “Ten Days of an Answer.” How great it would be to get those answers between now and Yom Kippur!

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5775 – The Year of Letting Go – Kol Nidrei Rabbi David Greenstein

The South Sea island of Borneo is a natural treasure. Its rain forest, one of the oldest in the world, is the home of myriads of different kinds of living creatures. Interest in these species has led to developing creative ways to capture them, so that they can be studied or shipped to zoos in many countries for our edification. And, of course this must be done without damaging them. For instance, there is a market for Borneo monkeys. But how do you catch these agile and clever critters?

This is how: The trap is a simple one – a large coconut. A small hole is opened in the coconut, just big enough for the monkey to squeeze its hand into. The coconut is hollowed out and goodies – bananas or peanuts – are inserted. The coconut is then fastened to a tree or anchor. When the monkey comes by and discovers the delicious treat inside the coconut, it slips its hand inside and grasps the food.

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The `Aqedah – Rosh Ha-Shanah 5775 – 2014 Rabbi David Greenstein

Gut Yontif! Shanah Tovah!

In keeping with honored tradition, I had hoped to start this talk with a joke. But, since I want to talk a little about the `Aqedah – the Binding of Isaac, perhaps the most difficult story in all the Torah, I was not able to find a good joke that would lead into it. But then I thought, wait, Isaac’s name literally means “he will laugh.” So there is apparently some humor embedded in this stark tale, after all. Perhaps we will find it – – and perhaps not.

This most difficult story forms the core of our Rosh Ha-Shanah service. Unlike our practice when we celebrate the two days of other holidays, when we read a discrete Torah reading for each day, the Torah readings for these two days constitute a continuous reading, from one day to the next, of the expanded story of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac. Oh, and did I mention – God?

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