Authentic Prayer: Rosh Hashanah Opening 5787

Rosh Hashanah Opening 5787

One of my favorite stories seems appropriate tonight.

Now, you might not be aware of this, but most Hasidim, a kind of denomination of ultra-Orthodox Jews, don’t have TVs in their homes.  But one Hasidic guy really wants to buy a TV.  So, he goes to a store in Brooklyn, and he says to the salesman, “I want to buy that TV.”  But the salesman says, “We don’t sell TVs to Hasidim.”

Undeterred, the guy goes home, changes into jeans and a t-shirt, puts on a baseball cap, tucks his payos, his sideburn fringes, into his cap, and goes back to the store. 

Again, he says to the salesman, “I want to buy that TV.”  But the salesman says, “We don’t sell TVs to Hasidim.”

Now the guy is really frustrated and mad.  But he is also determined.  He goes home, shaves off his beard and his payos, buys a total hipster outfit, and even gets a tattoo.  Finally, he goes back to the store, and he says to the salesman, “I want to buy that TV.”  But the salesman says, “We don’t sell TVs to Hasidim.”

The guy is furious.  “How did you know I’m a Hasid?”

And the salesman says, “Because that’s a microwave oven.”

You know, while none of us here tonight are Hasidim, I believe that on the High Holy Days we bear some relationship to that story, except in reverse.  For example, tonight many of us dress in fancier clothes than we usually wear to Congregation Beit Simcha in casual Tucson, Arizona: we wear dress shirts in place of t-shirts, dress slacks in place of jeans, dresses where slacks would do on an ordinary Shabbat.  We have flowers on the pulpit, and white mantles on the Torahs.  I am wearing a white robe and tallis that I only use for these Days of Awe.  We spend these long services on these complex holy days trying to impress God, or other congregants, or perhaps ourselves with our desire to be something we might not have been ever before—or at least since last Yom Kippur: pious, repentant, deeply Jewish.  You know—kind of Reform Hasidim over these Ten Days of Awe.

Now, that’s not a bad thing.  I mean, you are here, in shul on Rosh HaShanah, and if you are dressed up and participating, well, that’s a great mitzvah in and of itself.  Still, I wonder: how can we make this the most authentic yomtov season?  How can we make certain that not only will we pray, and repent, and give charity, as the prayer has it, do t’shuvah u’tefilah utzedakah, not only during these services but over the whole new 5787 year? 

Unfortunately, I, as rabbi, don’t have the answer to that.  Because it’s not my choice that matters; it’s yours.  It’s the ways you choose to make your own Judaism relevant, meaningful, and authentic in your own life that will shape your next year.  It’s the ways you choose to live your Jewish life, to do your Jewish learning, to express your Jewish spirit, to show your Jewish pride, to demonstrate your Jewish commitment.

Because while we might be dressed up prettier tonight than we are the rest of the year, underneath it all we are the same folks we were a little earlier.  This High Holy Day experience, these Days of Awe, the Yamim Nora’im, are about doing something very real, committing to change in ways that are authentic and last throughout the whole Jewish year to come. 

My friends, may your process during this Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, over these Ten Days of Repentance, help bring you to real growth, and positive Jewish change.

L’Shana Tova.