Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- The High Holidays
- Rosh Hashana
Judaism Has Its Own Form Of Virtual Reality, Particularly At This Time Of Year. Each Of The Special Chagim We Celebrate Utilizes V.r. To Create Or Accentuate The Mood We’re Trying To Establish. On Rosh Hashana, We Have Tashlich, A Long-standing (Controversial) Custom, As We Go Through The Motions K’ilu (As If) We Are Divesting Ourselves Of Our Sins & Sending Them To The Bottom Of The Ocean/sea.
Then, Just Before Yom Kippur, We Do Kaparot, Another Debatable Minhag Where We Swing A Chicken (Money, Let's Face It, Doesn’t Really Cut It) & Consider The Sobering Possibility That It Is We, K’ilu, Who Are About To Die, & Not The Poor Bird. Finally, Near The End Of This Long Holiday Period, During Sukkot, We Perform Hoshanot, A Mystical Ceremony That, In One Sense, Represents Our Fervent Desire To "beat Out" The Sins & Imperfections That Have Attached Themselves To Us, Leaving Us With An Unadulterated, Pure Neshama.
But There Is Another Application Of Virtual Reality That I Think Can Really Help Us To "get Into The Mood" & Appreciate The Gravity & Significance Of What These (40) Days Of Repentance Are All About. Close Your Eyes At Some Point During Rosh Hashana (Maybe As The Amida Is Repeated, Or Perhaps When The Shofar Is – Or Would Be – Sounded. Imagine That You Are Standing In A Courtroom At The Dock Of Justice. On One Side Of You Is The Prosecutor, Holding Your File. It’s Filled With Evidence Of Where You Might Have Strayed From Your Mission, From Your Better Judgment Or From Your Innate Knowledge Of What Is Right & What Is Wrong.
On The Other Side Is Your Defense Attorney Avidly Pleading Your Case, Bringing Character References, Arguing That You Tried To Do Your Best &, If You Failed, It Was Because Of Extenuating Circumstances, & Certainly Not Premeditated. And Then, Of Course, There Is The Judge, Who Is Actually On Your Side. The Judge Isn’t Out To Punish You, But Rather Wants You To Bravely Face The Many Challenges That Life Presents, & To Be The Very Best "you" Possible.
On Rosh Hashana, Virtual Reality Turns Into Actual Reality. We Are The Ones Who Control That; We Will "Sign Off" On Our Own Fate! May We Live To Create A Better World In 5784. Shana Tova.
Rabbis in Midrash
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
