Rabbi Neil A. Tow©
We love vacation and spending time away from home. We crave special days, days off, national holidays with parades and parties. We love the novelty of changes and transitions, or at least the heightened energy of anticipated new experiences.
We like novel and amazing combinations. In today’s Beettle Bailey cartoon, the Sergeant commands Beetle to order a special pizza, “My sergeant wants a pizza with a banana, strawberry, and whipped cream topping.”
And then, equally as strong, is the comfort of the familiar: The regular day; The routine. It’s nice to know that 99.9% of the time when we order a pizza there is a crust, sauce and cheese on top.
Nevertheless, we might sincerely believe and expect that the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah would be a major occasion, a moment for recognition and celebration of the upcoming New Year. At the very least, we might expect this Shabbat to have a special name just the way the Shabbat after Rosh Hashanah has a name, Shabbat Shuvah.
This Shabbat however is a plain and simple one. Our tradition does not even call this Shabbat the usual name given to the Shabbat before the beginning of a new month Shabbat Mevarchim, the Shabbat of Blessing. We actually do not announce this week the coming of the New Month since Tishrey, the first month is different than the others. There is judgment ahead, and it is a time for spiritual preparation and reflection. Also, according to tradition, we want to fool Sahtahn, the Accusing Angel, of when the New Year will come so that this Angel will not bring curses for our New Year.
It’s a plain Shabbat, vanilla, no toppings, cheese pizza, monochrome.
And in that plain-ness, in that routine-ness, there is a blessing for us. There is a reminder that every Shabbat is a holiday. Every Friday night through Saturday is special and holy. While Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with the shofar, the white kittel, bowing low, exalted words are all part of the way we welcome and begin to create the New Year, the weekly Shabbat marks the time.
A regular experience of the weekly Shabbat can make the High Holidays more meaningful. It is the spiritual exercise that gets us ready for the High Holiday marathon. It is the place where we familiarize ourselves with the words of the Torah so that when we turn back to Genesis and Leviticus for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we’re reviewing and deepening our readings of these passages and we are more closely connected to their context. The regular Shabbat is the place for us to live in a world filled with God’s Presence so that we will be able to on Rosh Hashanah fulfill the opening words of this week’s parasha and stand more confidently in God’s Presence.
Another reason we do not announce the new month on this Shabbat. From the pen of Chasidic Master Rabbi Shmuel Bornstain, we do not recite the new month blessing since the New Month-New Year does not flow from the week before. It does not require any energy of the time that precedes it. And for Rabbi Bornstain this idea is a lesson for us that in the New Year we can start completely anew, as though on the first day of Tishrey we will be born and the preceding days disappear and do not come to mind.
Let’s enjoy this plain Shabbat together so that in the days ahead we will be more ready for the wonderfully rich and exalted experience of the High Holidays. Let us also remember that we are also at heart simple, flesh and blood, people who want to live the best way we can in this world, and looking for hope and renewal in the New Year – today we realize our humble origins and the sound of the shofar, and the prayers of our community, will once again raise up our spirits, our hopes, and our aspirations.
Shabbat Shalom.
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