Rabbi
Simcha Bunem of Pezitcha, the Chasidic master, tells the story of a King’s son
who rebelled against his father. His
father exiled him in return. Time
passed, and the King’s compassion for his son awakened and he sent an official
to find his son. After many long
searches, the official found the son in a distant city, living barefoot, in
tattered clothing, in miserable quarters.
The official bowed before the King’s son and said to him, “I was sent by
your father, My Master the King, to ask you what you need, what you want.” The King’s son began to cry and said, “If it
will be favorable to my father the King, could I please have a pair of solid
boots that are clean and shiny?”
Rabbi
Simcha Bunam told the story and then taught:
We are the same way. In our
prayers before Our Parent in Heaven we bring small requests, for sustenance,
for prosperity, but we do not cry out for God’s Presence that is in exile, and
we do not ask for complete redemption.
Our greatest transgression is that we forget we are each the children of
a King.(Iturei Torah volume 7, page 10)
Each
of us is the son or daughter of a King, and it is more than reasonable for us
to ask for basic help from God, especially at this time when God is so close to
us, and to our hearts. As the holiday
begins, we are aware that on Shabbat and holidays that we do not make personal
requests. We take out the personal
request prayers from the Amidah on these days, but our tradition teaches that
we can and we do make requests from God for the entire Jewish people. Rabbi Yisrael Reisman teaches us this lesson
– when we say ‘Zochrenu Le’chayim melech chafetz ba’chayim” – Remember us for
life, King-Ruler who desires life – this is a request for our whole people.
On
Rosh Hashanah, let’s not forget our own needs, our own wants, our own hopes and
dreams, but let’s also look to the world with a wide-angle lens. Let’s expand our prayers to the width of the
world, however grandiose these prayers may sound.
Let’s
pray that God’s Presence stays close with us beyond these Days of Awe and
through the year. Let’s pray that this
year the world evolves and achieves at least the first level of redemption,
however we choose to envision that step forward – whether peoples and nations
choose dialogue and diplomacy over conflict and destruction or we find ways to
reduce or eliminate the spread of infectious disease across the world or reduce
hunger and homelessness here and abroad.
On
the day that all our prayers are phrased in the ‘we’, what are our most
passionate prayers for our communities, for our families, for our country, for
our brothers and sisters in Israel?
It
is time to dream big. As we discussed at
the beginning of Elul, it is time to imagine a year that is not only new in the
sense that it is 5775 now instead of 5774.
It is time to imagine a year that is new in its perspective, different
in fundamental ways as a result of our prayers and the efforts that result from
them. Let’s not be limited by the models
and modes that are routine. Over the
next 2 days we have an amazing opportunity to re-imagine the most complicated
challenges, problems, and dilemmas we face as a people, whether concrete, spiritual,
or moral.
Let’s
take up this invitation to Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and all the upcoming
days of awe and reflection in the spirit of Shel Silverstein z”l one of my
favorite poets:
If
you are a dreamer, come in,
If
you are a dream, a wisher, a liar,
A
hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…
If
you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For
we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come
in!
Come
in!
Shana Tovah u’metukah!
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