Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday September 22, 2006

Inspiration for a new year

by dan pine
staff writer

You’re just back from Erev Rosh Hashanah services, and you’ve got the rest of the evening and all the next day off. You could surf the Web; maybe watch a playoff game. Or, as Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins would urge, you could better spend your time contemplating the meaning of the High Holy Days.

Elkins was the editor of “Yom Kippur Readings,” a 2005 collection of insights, epigrams, quotes and commentary on the Day of Atonement. In his new volume, “Rosh Hashanah Readings: Inspiration, Information, Contemplation,” he offers a similar compendium covering that other major Day of Awe.

Arguably, Jews invented this genus of inspirational book –– the kind you find at the checkout counter of Borders –– with the “Pirke Avot” (or “Ethics of the Fathers”). Elkins had that classic text and the next 1700 years of Jewish wisdom to draw on for his new collection.

Among the notable Jewish thinkers quoted in the book are rabbis Abraham Joshua Heschel, Mordecai Kaplan, Avraham Kook, Arthur Waskow and David Wolpe; philosophers like Martin Buber; and writers like Isaac Bashevis Singer and Elie Wiesel.

He also draws from beyond the borders of Judaism, quoting Rudyard Kipling, Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, Al Gore and Oscar Romero, the late archbishop of San Salvador.

And then, of course, there are plenty of passages from the Torah, the Talmud, and sages spanning the millennia.

Perhaps of most interest to local readers are the Bay Area Jewish community figures included in the book: Congregation Emanu-El Rabbi Stephen Pearce, Kehilla Community Synagogue Rabbi David Cooper, Chochmat HaLev rabbis Avram Davis and Sara Shendelman, Bay Area Jewish Healing Center Rabbi Eric Weiss and Emanu-El’s scholar-in-residence, Rabbi Lawrence Kushner.

Together they all weigh in on the micro and the macro of Rosh Hashanah, from individual lines of the “Aveinu Malkeynu” to the hidden spirit of the shofar blasts.

Elkins’ approach makes for satisfying reading. Using the holiday as a core theme, he forms concentric circles of meaning and analysis. Ultimately, an examination of Rosh Hashanah becomes an examination of Torah, prayer, community and ritual, and each of those likewise spin off into their own realms as well.

“Rosh Hashanah Readings” could easily pass as a guide for the perplexed on any of those important subjects.

Books that can be digested in morsels have inherent appeal. It doesn’t matter whether one reads a bit every day, everything in one sitting, or a single paragraph a month. Each passage is a self-contained kernel of wisdom, and may be enjoyed as such.

Some of the most insightful writers are the locals.

In a section on repentance, Kushner writes: ”To forgive means not only to excuse someone for having committed an offense, but also to renounce the anger and claims of resentment.”

Chochmat HaLev’s Davis and Shendelman write, “There is little we can do to prepare for the unexpected, except to honor and celebrate the ebb and flow of life through our bodies, hearts and spirits. This is perhaps the deeper meaning of Rosh Hashanah –– one of opening, and allowing the hand of God to do its works through us.”

From page to page, Elkins juxtaposes his sources artfully, with a Talmudic passage following hard upon a few lines from Elie Wiesel or Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. The effect is one of a centuries-long conversation among the Jewish people about this inexhaustible subject.

Thus, Elkins implies, if it’s good enough for the sages to probe Rosh Hashanah’s deeper meaning, then it’s good enough for you.

Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection, for contemplating new beginnings, for setting things straight. “Rosh Hashanah Readings” cannot replace the hard work incumbent upon every Jew during the High Holy Days. But it may just provide a little apple dipped in honey for the contemplative Jewish soul.

“Rosh Hashanah Readings: Inspiration, Information, Contemplation,” edited by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins ($24.99, Jewish Lights, 366 pages).

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.