Although Rosh Hashana is about the state of the Jewish world, it also asks us to look inside ourselves. I find the teaching that follows helpful both to understand how I should look at events and how I should hold myself in a frightening and unsettling time.
Rav Eliyahu Dessler was the spiritual guide (mashgiach Ruchani) of the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Israel. He taught something about our internal battles that is important to remember in this year of so much tumult and discord and pain.
Napoleon once declared that every battle is decided in the first fifteen minutes. Rav Dessler points to a sort of parallel in internal battles, but it doesn’t even take fifteen minutes. Indeed, he says, certain battles are decided before the battle is even joined. Let me explain:
Rav Dessler taught that all of us have a nukudat bechira – a point of choosing. For every person, that point is different. If you put two salads in front of me, I have to choose which one to eat. But if you place a salad and a ham sandwich in front of me, I don’t have to choose. Because I keep kosher (and moreover am a vegetarian!), there is no point of choosing. A prior choice has already been made. My Neruda’s, my point, was established long ago. The battle was long since won. I stand, in terms of the food decision, in conquered territory.
On this Rosh Hashana, we understand that much of what has happened this year has forced people to make choices: how they will react, how vocal they will be, and how to relate to others who do not share the same views. But for many, the Nekudat Habechirah, the real choice, was long ago. We knew we would stand up against prejudice and hatred and antisemitism. There was no choice, for inside of ourselves, we were in conquered territory.
Now we face a new year. New Years are not only about resolutions to change; they are about renewing the convictions we already carry, the choices we have already made. God, our liturgy tells us, renews creation daily. We too renew ourselves daily. After the anguish of the year that has past, this Rosh Hashana is to bring us more strength, greater resolve, and a deeper sense of the community of those who share our passions. It is a time to strengthen the choices we have already made to stand against the proliferating hatreds and prejudices that threaten us, Israel, and the larger human community.
The Jewish people along with nations east and west are going through a time of trial. Rosh Hashana is here to remind us of what we already believe, the choices we have made long ago inside ourselves: to fight for what is good, to believe in the possibility of change, to broaden our embrace, and deepen our souls. May this year find us true to the missions we have already accepted, and be prepared for new undertakings to better ourselves, preserve our people, and heal the world.
