Rabbi Toba August Sermon Rosh Hashanah 5773 Sept. 18, 2012 The Only Constant in Life is Change Though the only constant in life is change, we actually are hardwired to resist new challenges preferring to remain within our comfort zones. Rather than adjust, we are willing to exist within our self-imposed boundaries, often time at great emotional cost to ourselves and the world around us. To illustrate this point, let me share a story. In the 1960s, President Eisenhower received the gift of a rare, white tiger named Mohini. For years, Mohini lived in the Washington Zoo and spent her days pacing back and forth in a 12-by-12 foot cage. Finally the zoo decided to build her a larger enclosure so Mohini could run, climb and explore. But when Mohini arrived at her new home, she didn t rush out, eagerly to her new habitat. Rather, she marked off a 12-by-12 foot square for herself by the fence, and paced there until her death, never enjoying the new opportunities available to her. Mohini exemplifies the classic conditioning most of us live within. Although she was a magnificent, powerful creature, Mohini was convinced her place was just a 12-by-12 foot square. We all have the propensity to behave exactly like Mohini. Based on our conditioning, we create invisible cages for ourselves, limiting our lives within their boundaries. The Rosh Hashanah holy days are a time to wonder about our lives, and our behavior. Two rituals especially: the sound of the shofar blast, and the metaphor of the book of life we can penetrate our conditioned behavior and wake up to other possibilities. Rabbi Sara Hurwitz, the first ordained female spiritual leader in the Orthodox movement, wrote about Mohini, the white tiger and said: we don t have to succumb to our internal imprisonment. Throughout the High Holidays, we will hear the shofar blast. Historically, the shofar signaled the release of all slaves at the end of the Jubilee year. That sound should make 1
us ask, What enslaves us? What weighs us down? What baggage do we hold onto? And then, let it go. The High Holidays present us with an opportunity to break free from our self-imposed cages, to find our route to freedom and live life with renewed passion. A second tool for transformation, in is the repeating metaphor in our holiday prayers - we ask God to write us in the book of Life. B sefer Ha Chaim. V kotvenu b sefer ha Chaim. May we all be inscribed for life, blessing, sustenance and peace in the book of life And if we want to continue living our lives, today is the time to ask ourselves if we are content with the lives we are living. Are we open to expansiveness and experiences that can challenge and transform us, or are we pacing our 12x12 foot cages? Sometimes, we take our prayers literally, and perhaps reject them because, in this case, we don t believe in a God who determines our destiny and writes our name in a big book. It is Too much like Santa Claus, or other fantastical stories designed for children. I believe that the image of the book of life is of vital importance because I do not take it literally. Rather, it is a metaphor and we have to understand that it is in our own hands, our own hopes, dreams, relationships and deeds that will enter our names into a book of life. A medieval rabbi said: Days are scrolls: write on them what you want to be remembered. (Bahya Ibn Pakuda) Right now during our services, we can determine if our lives are worth remembering. Are we excited about what we have accomplished, or about the type of parent and friend that we are to our families and others? Are we trying to better our community and get involved with helping others and our environment? Perhaps we create jobs so others can prosper, or are otherwise engaged in creating a more robust economy. All of our endeavors and activities are chapters in our book of life, and our dreams and goals for next year are now being written. 2
While in Vienna this summer with my husband, we saw the provocative Holocaust memorial, called The Nameless Library. Opened just 12 years ago, the stark memorial is a grey, concrete structure with shelves of thousands of library books whose spines are facing inwards and whose covers are not visible. The titles are nameless, the volumes are unknown. While viewing the monument I was struck on how similar its symbol was to the Book of Life metaphor of Rosh Hashana. The Vienna Holocaust memorial, with its empty concrete library and unwritten books reflects the 65,000 Jews of Vienna whose innocent lives were taken too soon and they were not able to write their stories in their respective books. The library is empty; their stories will never be told. For their sake, and for ours, our stories must be stories worth telling. The disturbing memorial also reminded me of a brilliant 18 th rabbi named Chaim ben Yitzchak of Volozhin. When he was young, he was not an ambitious student, and in fact one day told his parents he no longer wanted to study but would rather go to trade school and learn to be a shoe maker. He announced his decision to his parents who reluctantly acquiesced. That night, the young man had a dream. In it he saw an angel holding a stack of beautiful books. Whose books are those? he asked the angel. They are yours, was the answer, if you have the courage to write them. This dream changed the young man s life, and Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin was on his way to discovering the scholar that he was meant to become. We are the authors of our living story, and at times, our dreams give us a hint of what we can do with our lives.(from Floating Takes Faith: Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World, by Rabbi David J. Wolpe) What a gift to be here today and know that we have the blessing and opportunity to write more stories in our book of life. What a blessing to be alive for another year. We do not take this for granted and that is why we ask ourselves the serious, question of Ayecha Where am I? What is the condition of my soul and my life dream? Today, and for the next 10 days through Yom Kippur, we ponder life questions. Am I where I have the potential to be? 3
Am I too content or not content enough? Am I challenging myself or am I too stressed and need less challenge! How do I spend my time? Am I busy making meaningful memories or preoccupied with meaningless moments? In a wonderful book by Donald Miller, called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, the author, after writing a successful memoir was approached by two filmmakers who wanted to edit the story and make a movie of his life. As he worked with them on the screenplay, he was distressed at how much was being changed and when asked why, was told his life was actually too boring to film. Miller knew in his heart they were right! He spent the next year discovering how to make a meaningful movie and learned that a good story had to have a character that wants something very badly and is willing to sacrifice and overcome conflicts to get it. Miller was single, overweight, watching too much TV and making up fictional characters that were living more interesting lives than he was. His book which inspired me, is about how to write on the blank page and create a good tale. Analyzing his own life, Miller said he knew he was living an unremarkable life because he was not willing to face conflict with courage and was an unwilling victim instead of a grateful participant. Like the tiger Mohini, because he was afraid to face his demons, he paced in his self imposed cage resisting any growth or change. He was like an unwritten Holocaust memorial book in the nameless library. His real life story had unwritten pages. Perhaps some of us here are like Miller, stuck in the status quo, avoiding challenges or simply accepting less than we should. Miller explained that a general rule in writing stories is that characters don t want to change. They must be forced to change. People fear change, because even if their situations may be terrible, at least they have a sense of control and know what to expect. The secret to facing change is to be daring, take risks and not to be afraid. Listening to his own advice, Miller finally jumped in and even though 4
he was not in good shape, he joined a group raising money for a cause and hiked the Inca trail in Peru. Can you imagine just doing something like that? You are a couch potato, and only weeks later are hiking the Inca trail with strangers! Now that is a way of writing a new story! Let me share how Miller described the end of his adventure: We didn t hike to the Sun Gate the next morning; we ran. We ran on blistered feet and sore legs. We got there, and it was fogged in, so we sat along the rocks on the ruins and waited for the fog to burn off. We sat and sang songs. You can take a bus to Machu Picchu and hike a little ways to the Sun Gate. But the people who took the bus didn t experience the city as we did. The pain made the city more beautiful. The story of our hiking together made us different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and showed up at the ending using an easier way. My hike changed me. I no longer thought of myself as incapable of hard physical challenges, and I wasn t watching much TV anymore. I was chasing a girl now, and it was going well. We can live the life we want to live. Excuses be Gone. Miller observed that people give up on their stories because it is harder than they thought. He noted that half of the commercials on TV are selling us something that will make life easier and wondered if our stories aren t being stolen by the easy life. A friend told him when something hard happens, you have two choices. You can either get bitter, or get better. At 75 years of age, God told Abraham and Sarah to do a Lech Lecha: to Go Forth from their land, their birthplace and ancestral home, to the unknown land that God would show them. This was a journey of selfdiscovery, even at an age when you might think there is nothing left to discover. God was saying, leave behind whatever might be holding you back and encounter your Divine soul, the true you. This is the secret of embarking on a life journey, writing another chapter in a book of an exciting and meaningful life. By asking the questions, and taking the time to find the answers, we discover our true selves, our potential and inner power. I am encouraging us to take the risk, find the courage, and act. 5
The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Kotveinu B Serfer HaChaim Melech Hafetz Ba Chaim: God, with your help, let us write good stories in our book of life, and grant us blessing, peace and sustenance. May we be remembered and inscribed, we and all your people, and all good people everywhere, for a good, healthy, prosperous and peaceful life. And we say AMEN 6