These weeks leading up to the High Holidays motivate us to start doing the important, holy work of t'suvah. The word, t'suvah itself means 'return,' or 'turn.' But as I’ve said before, this return is not a return to the pas. It's a return to the best parts of ourselves, which sometimes, are yet undiscovered. This is the kind of change that Judaism challenges us to do.
Change for its own sake is not what Judaism is after. Growth - is what Judaism is after. If a tradition, custom, prayer or habit is meaningful - if it brings joy to you and others - if it helps the community in some way - L'chaiim! - I'm all for it. But we need to inspect and re-inspect not only our customs and our reasons for doing them.
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This week's Torah portion, Eikev, speaks to this tension between the customs of the past, and the possible new traditions of the future.
Moses recalls his 40 days on Mount Sinai: God gave him the commandments, and Moses prepares to present them to the Israelites gathered below the mountain. Moses sees them worshipping an idol, a golden calf, and in a display of great anger, he throws down the tablets, breaking them. God wants to kill the insurgent Israelites but Moses is able to dissuade God from doing so. Following this, God creates two more tablets.
As the Israelites continue to journey toward Israel, they walk around with the ark of the covenant, inside of which are the two tablets.
But this week's Torah portion teaches us that inside of that ark are both the broken pieces from the first set of commandments as well as the newer, complete set.
The ark reminds the Israelites that it holiness lies in the blending of past traditions with new ones.
Today's reality is different than the past. This is true both individually and collectively. Jews join temples for different reasons than they did in previous generations. We need to understand this, and like Moses, create a new set of 'commandments.' If we cling only to the Torah of the past, we only have broken tablets.
But that being said, remember that both sets of tablets were placed in the ark, not just the new ones. There's something to be learned from the old, shattered set ... and from the past. We learn the passions and struggles of an earlier time, we see how others confronted issues of the past. We need the tablets of the past, even the broken ones, in order to make the unified Torah of the present.
There's a rabbinical concept in Judaism called Z’chut Avot, the merits of the fathers. When we say the Amidah prayer, it starts with the paragraph mentioning our ancestors - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecah, Leah and Rachel. We mention them to remind God that we are descended from them, and as such, God should listen to our prayers. We merit God's attention simply because of our lineage.
This first prayer of the Amidah gets God's attention because of Z’chut Avot. That's the power of the past, of the chain of Jewish tradition that stretches back 4,000 years. But once we have God's attention - once we have an audience with the King, what will we say? What will we do? How will we act? How will we figure out what it means to be a holy community? We are the children of Abraham and Sarah, but God already heard their voices. God wants to hear yours.
