Rabbis For Human Rights

The New Year is virtually upon us. Could it be that this year will mark the last celebration of the "birthday" of the Creation?

Given the events of the past week, what might help us get a more balanced view of the human condition would be if we received the actuarial tables from the insurance company, which would tell us that the world's life expectancy has just been reduced from the last New Year to the present one by a whole year.

When celebrating the New Year - the birthday of the world - instead of counting up the years, we should make a countdown! This is a sobering view of life, but does support the Jewish dictum that a "Jew should repent the day before he dies" (Sayings of the Fathers 2:10). How does an individual know when will be the day before he dies? The person does not know, therefore he should seek repentance every day of his or her life.

The madness that has gripped the world brings such traumatic thoughts to mind. Our days have seemingly been limited because of events way beyond our control or comprehension. During this season, we greet each other with the saying: "May you be inscribed in the Book of Life." It is no longer guaranteed that should we repent honestly during the coming days that we will automatically be sealed in the Book of Life. The Book of Death seems a far more frightening reality, wrapped in the flames and smoke of terrorists' destruction.

We live in a world of opposites, a struggle between two contending forces, life and death. This is dramatically reinforced in Deuteronomy: "As the heavens and earth are My witness, I have given you life and death, a blessing and a curse; and you are to choose life so that you and your descendents will live" (30:19-29). And in Amos we read: "Hate the evil and love the good..." (5:15).

It would be easy for us to give into despair, to conclude that this New Year will usher in the curse, the evil, and eventual death. On the surface, that seems to be the present reality. Armageddon is lurking around the corner.

This is the final birthday party for our world. We are designated to be signed, sealed and delivered into the Book of Death. But this is not the Jewish approach to life. We have chosen to "love good" and "hate evil" (ideally, if not practically). Here is where our long history can serve as a shining example to enlightened nations and peoples around the globe, and a definitive declaration of resiliency to those medieval regimes and evil individuals who would darken our universe.

We Jews represent the longest liberation movement in human history. Egyptian slavery, Babylonian expulsion, Roman exile, Crusader massacres, Spanish inquisitions, Cossack butchers, Tzarist oppressors, Nazi murderers, Arab armies and terrorist killers have never derailed us from maintaining our identity as a people, destined to live free in our own land. The hope of "return" after 2,000 years of wandering was sustained by an urgency to build a country on the prophetic ideal of social justice and equality.

And while we may have failed in many areas, that dream still sees itself as a reality.

All attempts to wipe us out, from Amalek to Arafat, have failed. One is reminded of the old Black spiritual: "Just like a tree that's standing by the water, we shall not be moved." Why? Because we believe in the "Book of Life."

At the saddest moment in our lives, as we mourn the death of family and friends, we recite the Kaddish (the mourner's prayer), which is an act of defiance. At the very saddest moment in our lives, we praise God, thanking the Almighty for life. It is a contradiction in terms. More so, we end the prayer with a blessing for peace. This religious yearning is matched by a secular longing, powerfully worded in our national anthem, "Hatikva" (The Hope).

It is not that we are Pollyannaish. We have good reason to believe our own rhetoric. Our very existence as a people is living proof that our optimism is not only necessary, but justified. And so, as the New Year dawns, in light of our long tortuous and glorious history, giving into fatalism and despair, letting the curse, the evil and death overwhelm us, is not in the cards. The Book of Life still awaits us. And the Book of Death will eventually catch up with those who would extinguish the candles on our New Year's birthday.

Sadness will temper our mood, but not our resolve. We will continue to outlast the enemies of life.

Originally published by The Jerusalem Post, 28 Elul 5761; Sunday September 16, 2001
Original Online version can be found at: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/16/Opinion/Opinion.34864.html
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