September 2010 bulletin article

On the morning that the month of Elul began this year, I stood at the Kotel, the Western Wall in Jerusalem to welcome the new month with the sound of the shofar. I stood with a large group of women, gathered to pray and give thanks to God, and to reflect on the month that was beginning, as we began to prepare for the journey to the new year about to begin in just four short weeks.

That same afternoon, I returned to the Kotel, and witnessed the swearing in ceremonies for new IDF soldiers. Friends and families gathered at the Kotel plaza, watching with a mix of pride and anxiety, knowing full well the dangers that might lie ahead for these young men and women, who must serve in order to protect and defend our Jewish homeland.

And later, I went into the tunnels that have been excavated underneath the Kotel, and pressed my hand onto the stones closest to the Holy of Holies, the same stones that have witnessed history for thousands of years.

In the Yiddish play The Dybbuk, the author Shalom Ansky, conveys a sense of what it must have been like to be among those at the Temple in ancient times:

“God's world is great and holy. The holiest land in the world is the land of Israel. In the land of Israel the holiest city is Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the holiest place was the Temple, and in the Temple the holiest spot was the Holy of Holies.... There are seventy peoples in the world. The holiest among these is the people of Israel. The holiest of the people of Israel is the tribe of Levi. In the tribe of Levi the holiest are the priests. Among the priests, the holiest was the High Priest.... There are 354 days in the [lunar] year. Among these, the holidays are holy. Higher than these is the holiness of the Sabbath. Among Sabbaths, the holiest is the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbaths.... There are seventy languages in the world. The holiest is Hebrew. Holier than all else in this language is the holy Torah, and in the Torah the holiest part is the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments the holiest of all words is the name of God.... And once during the year, at a certain hour, these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was on the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and there utter the name of God. And because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril not only for the High Priest but for the whole of Israel. For if in this hour there had, God forbid, entered the mind of the High Priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed. Every spot where a man raises his eyes to heaven is a holy of holies. Every man, having been created by God in His own image and likeness, is a high priest. Every day of a man's life is a Day of Atonement, and every word that a man speaks with sincerity is the Name of the Lord. Therefore it is that every sin and every wrong that a man commits brings the destruction of the world.”

As we move through the month of Elul and prepare for the Yamim Noraim, we each prepare to enter into our own holy of holies. We consider all that has happened in the past year and all that we hope and pray for in the year to come. With prayer and song and reflection we enter into a sacred and holy space, a place which transcends time and space and sets us back on the path of remembering, where we have been, who we are, who we are meant to be. On the High Holidays we leave behind our ordinary lives and enter into the holy of holies, and hear again the ancient call of the shofar, summoning us to return - to God, to our true selves, to the path of teshuvah and tikkun olam.

May this year 5771 be for all of us a year of blessing, health, joy, and return,

Rabbi Audrey S. Pollack