A word of Torah:
We thought and hoped that this New Year would be different from last year’s High Holidays---instead of having services on Zoom and not being able to gather with family and friends for holiday meals, we could be together for services and meals. Certainly, it seemed likely after the creation of the vaccines. Not so simple.
Uncertainty rather than assurance. Anxiety rather than relief. Wondering whether life will ever be normal again. No one can tell us with assurance what next year will be like.
What have we learned from the year of Covid 19?
We learned that we are all connected—everywhere in the world Covid struck and simultaneously we were also reminded of the fragility of life.
Much of this sounds like a central prayer of the High Holidays---the unetaneh tokef. It proclaims everyone faces judgement in this season. Who shall live and who shall die? Who by plague? Who by flood?
What does unetaneh tokef teach us about how to go forward into a year of uncertainty and of Covid? Its concluding line is teshuva, tefilla and tzedaka ma’avirin et roa ha-gezerah—teshuva/change, tefilla/usually translated as prayer but I will translate it as connection and tzedaka/caring avert the severity of the decree. There is no magic wand that averts the decree. All human beings will die no matter how righteous and saintly they are. There is no life without death. There is no tomorrow without disease.
Unetaneh tokef’s message is the same each year---we cannot change the decree---we can only shape our response to the decree. We have power and we have choice---not unlimited power and choice—we are after all human but we are not powerless either. Knowing the limitations of being human, how will we live this life to make this a better world both on a micro level with friends, family or co-workers—and on a macro level how to bring caring and justice to this planet.
Most importantly, we have the power of teshuva—to change. We can look back on what we have done in the past and make different decisions in the future as difficult as changing might be. Every single day has never happened before, each is unique and new--- and Judaism maintains that we can be new and renewed as well. We are the new in the New Year.
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