Approaching the High Holy Days as Jews…or as People

Shofar at demonstration for Israel in Prague, 2009. Photo: Martin Kozák.

The start of the Jewish New Year, the month of Tishrei, is filled with holy days, among them four foundational celebrations: Rosh haShanah, Yom haKippurim, Sukkot and Simchat Torah-Shemini Atzeret. They are as different from one another as possible. Yet, we may also think of all four holidays as two pairs of two. The first two– the day of memory and accounting and the day of atonement – are awe-inspiring and grave compared with the last two festivals, which are days of joy.

At the same time, the first three holidays do have a common denominator:  as much as these are Jewish holidays, they carry a universal message.  Here, embedded within them, are three of humanity’s cardinal touchstones:  accounting and judgment; mercy and atonement; and the joy of life.

These attributes and qualities are essential to the lives of every human being. We mark the New Year by commemorating creation on the one hand, and celebrating the Kingship of the Lord on the other. Both creation and God’s sovereignty pertain to all humankind and are not specifically Jewish.

The Day of Atonement, too, is relevant to every human being. Life is full of mistakes and transgressions. Without atonement it would be unbearable to go on living with the unresolved and painful pieces of our past.

Sukkot, at first glance, seems to be far more connected with Jewish history. Yet, at its essence, this holiday is actually a festival of thanksgiving for what we have. We acknowledge the tranquility in our lives and express our gratitude for Divine gifts.  Moreover, our sages teach us that during Sukkot — in the days of the Holy Temple – 70 bulls were offered to God in the name of the 70 nations of the world. As the prophet Zachariah foretells, in the days to come it is on Sukkot that all the peoples of the world will come as pilgrims to the Temple in Jerusalem (14:16-21).

This combination of the particular and the universal is not just one more interesting point: it is the key for understanding the meaning of these three holidays.  In all our other celebrations, and perhaps in Jewish religious life in general, we stress the specificity of Jewish existence. Most of our holidays and memorial days are deeply connected with our own history.

In Tishrei, however, we focus on our fundamental humanity, on the fact that we are human beings with great problems. In this context, humanity is not defined as a group of human beings; here we speak of our basic humanity — humanity as a quality. The very touchstones that we mark in Tishrei are what make us human. The essence of the universality of these holidays, then, is not in the point of sharing with others: it is in delving into ourselves in order to reveal and find some of the fundamentals of our existence. We explore and acknowledge what is universal to all humankind within our own selves.

The fourth and last of the holidays of the month of Tishrei, Shemini Atzeret (and with it Simchat Torah), stands in clear contrast to the first three. As beautifully depicted by our sages, the King made great banquet, to which he invited all the citizens of his realm. At the end of these feasts, he called his most beloved friend and said: now that all these big events are over, let us have a small banquet just for the two of us (tractate Sukkah 55b).

Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz is a world-renowned distinguished scholar, teacher, mystic and social critic. He has written over 60 books and hundreds of articles on the Talmud, Kabbalah and Chasidut. His works have been translated into English, Russian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese. Rabbi Steinsaltz has been on a life-long mission to make the Talmud accessible to all. His translations of the Talmud into Hebrew, French and Russian have sold more than a million copies. The first volume of the new Koren Talmud Bavli with Rabbi Steinsaltz’s English translation and commentary is available through the publisher and Amazon. The Koren Talmud iPad Appwill be available soon. November 18^th is the Third Annual Global Day of Jewish Learning, a program spearheaded by Rabbi Steinsaltz to bring the study of Jewish texts to communities around the world.