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Rabbi Toba August

Sermon Rosh Hashanah 5773

Sept. 18, 2012

The Only Constant in Life is Change

Though the only constant in life is change, we actually are hardwired

to resist new challenges –preferring to remain within our comfort zones.

Rather than adjust, we are willing to exist within our self-imposed

boundaries, often time at great emotional cost to ourselves and the world

around us. To illustrate this point, let me share a story.

In the 1960s, President Eisenhower received the gift of a rare, white

tiger named Mohini. For years, Mohini lived in the Washington Zoo and spent

her days pacing back and forth in a 12-by-12 foot cage. Finally the zoo

decided to build her a larger enclosure so Mohini could run, climb and

explore. But when Mohini arrived at her new home, she didn’t rush out,

eagerly to her new habitat. Rather, she marked off a 12-by-12 foot square

for herself by the fence, and paced there until her death, never enjoying the

new opportunities available to her.

Mohini exemplifies the classic conditioning most of us live within.

Although she was a magnificent, powerful creature, Mohini was convinced

her “place” was just a 12-by-12 foot square. We all have the propensity to

behave exactly like Mohini. Based on our conditioning, we create invisible

cages for ourselves, limiting our lives within their boundaries.

The Rosh Hashanah holy days are a time to wonder about our lives,

and our behavior. Two rituals especially: the sound of the shofar blast, and

the metaphor of the book of life we can penetrate our conditioned behavior

and wake up to other possibilities.

Rabbi Sara Hurwitz, the first ordained female“spiritual leader” in the

Orthodox movement, wrote about Mohini, the white tiger and said:”we don’t

have to succumb to our internal imprisonment. Throughout the High

Holidays, we will hear the shofar blast. Historically, the shofar signaled the

release of all slaves at the end of the Jubilee year. That sound should make

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us ask, “What enslaves us? What weighs us down? What baggage do we

hold onto?” And then, let it go. The High Holidays present us with an

opportunity to break free from our self-imposed cages, to find our route to

freedom and live life with renewed passion.”

A second tool for transformation, in is the repeating metaphor in our

holiday prayers - we ask God to write us in the book of Life. B’sefer

Ha’Chaim.

V’kotvenu b’sefer ha’Chaim. May we all be inscribed for life, blessing,

sustenance and peace in the book of life

And if we want to continue living our lives, today is the time to ask

ourselves if we are content with the lives we are living. Are we open to

expansiveness and experiences that can challenge and transform us, or are

we pacing our 12x12 foot cages?

Sometimes, we take our prayers literally, and perhaps reject them

because, in this case, we don’t believe in a God who determines our destiny

and writes our name in a big book. It is Too much like Santa Claus, or other

fantastical stories designed for children.

I believe that the image of the book of life is of vital importance

because I do not take it literally. Rather, it is a metaphor and we have to

understand that it is in our own hands, our own hopes, dreams, relationships

and deeds that will enter our names into a book of life.

A medieval rabbi said:” Days are scrolls: write on them what you want

to be remembered.” (Bahya Ibn Pakuda)

Right now during our services, we can determine if our lives are worth

remembering. Are we excited about what we have accomplished, or about

the type of parent and friend that we are to our families and others?

Are we trying to better our community and get involved with helping

others and our environment?

Perhaps we create jobs so others can prosper, or are otherwise

engaged in creating a more robust economy. All of our endeavors and

activities are chapters in our book of life, and our dreams and goals for next

year are now being written.

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While in Vienna this summer with my husband, we saw the

provocative Holocaust memorial, called “The Nameless Library.”

Opened just 12 years ago, the stark memorial is a grey, concrete structure

with shelves of thousands of library books whose spines are facing inwards

and whose covers are not visible. The titles are nameless, the volumes are

unknown. While viewing the monument I was struck on how similar its

symbol was to the Book of Life metaphor of Rosh Hashana.

The Vienna Holocaust memorial, with its empty concrete library and

unwritten books reflects the 65,000 Jews of Vienna whose innocent lives

were taken too soon and they were not able to write their stories in their

respective books. The library is empty; their stories will never be told. For

their sake, and for ours, our stories must be stories worth telling.

The disturbing memorial also reminded me of a brilliant 18th rabbi

named Chaim ben Yitzchak of Volozhin. When he was young, he was not an

ambitious student, and in fact one day told his parents he no longer wanted

to study but would rather go to trade school and learn to be a shoe maker.

He announced his decision to his parents who reluctantly acquiesced.

That night, the young man had a dream. In it he saw an angel holding

a stack of beautiful books. “Whose books are those?” he asked the angel.

“They are yours,” was the answer, “if you have the courage to write them.”

This dream changed the young man’s life, and Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin

was on his way to discovering the scholar that he was meant to become.

We are the authors of our living story, and at times, our dreams give

us a hint of what we can do with our lives.(from Floating Takes Faith: Ancient

Wisdom for a Modern World, by Rabbi David J. Wolpe)

What a gift to be here today and know that we have the blessing and

opportunity to write more stories in our book of life.

What a blessing to be alive for another year. We do not take this for

granted and that is why we ask ourselves the serious, question of “Ayecha”

Where am I? What is the condition of my soul and my life dream?

Today, and for the next 10 days through Yom Kippur, we ponder life

questions.

Am I where I have the potential to be?

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Am I too content or not content enough?

Am I challenging myself or am I too stressed and need less

challenge!

How do I spend my time? Am I busy making meaningful

memories or preoccupied with meaningless moments?

In a wonderful book by Donald Miller, called “A Million Miles in a

Thousand Years, the author, after writing a successful memoir was

approached by two filmmakers who wanted to edit the story and make a

movie of his life. As he worked with them on the screenplay, he was

distressed at how much was being changed and when asked why, was told

his life was actually too boring to film.

Miller knew in his heart they were right!

He spent the next year discovering how to make a meaningful movie

and learned that a good story had to have a character that wants something

very badly and is willing to sacrifice and overcome conflicts to get it. Miller

was single, overweight, watching too much TV and making up fictional

characters that were living more interesting lives than he was. His book

which inspired me, is about how to write on the blank page and create a

good tale.

Analyzing his own life, Miller said he knew he was living an

unremarkable life because he was not willing to face conflict with courage

and was “an unwilling victim instead of a grateful participant.”

Like the tiger Mohini, because he was afraid to face his demons, he

paced in his self imposed cage resisting any growth or change. He was like

an unwritten Holocaust memorial book in the nameless library. His real life

story had unwritten pages.

Perhaps some of us here are like Miller, stuck in the status quo,

avoiding challenges or simply accepting less than we should.

Miller explained that a general rule in writing stories is that characters

don’t want to change. They must be forced to change. People fear change,

because even if their situations may be terrible, at least they have a sense

of control and know what to expect.

The secret to facing change is to be daring, take risks and not to be

afraid. Listening to his own advice, Miller finally jumped in and even though

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he was not in good shape, he joined a group raising money for a cause and

hiked the Inca trail in Peru.

Can you imagine just doing something like that? You are a couch

potato, and only weeks later are hiking the Inca trail with strangers! Now

that is a way of writing a new story!

Let me share how Miller described the end of his adventure:

“We didn’t hike to the Sun Gate the next morning; we ran. We ran on blistered feet

and sore legs. We got there, and it was fogged in, so we sat along the rocks on the

ruins and waited for the fog to burn off. We sat and sang songs. You can take a

bus to Machu Picchu and hike a little ways to the Sun Gate. But the people who

took the bus didn’t experience the city as we did.

The pain made the city more beautiful. The story of our hiking together made us

different characters than we would have been if we had skipped the story and

showed up at the ending using an easier way. My hike changed me. I no longer

thought of myself as incapable of hard physical challenges, and I wasn’t watching

much TV anymore. I was chasing a girl now, and it was going well.”

We can live the life we want to live. Excuses be Gone.

Miller observed that people give up on their stories because it is harder

than they thought. He noted that half of the commercials on TV are selling

us something that will make life easier and wondered if our stories aren’t

being stolen by the easy life.

A friend told him when something hard happens, you have two

choices. You can either get bitter, or get better.

At 75 years of age, God told Abraham and Sarah to do a Lech Lecha:

to Go Forth from their land, their birthplace and ancestral home, to the

unknown land that God would show them. This was a journey of self-

discovery, even at an age when you might think there is nothing left to

discover. God was saying, leave behind whatever might be holding you back

and encounter your Divine soul, the true you.

This is the secret of embarking on a life journey, writing another

chapter in a book of an exciting and meaningful life. By asking the

questions, and taking the time to find the answers, we discover our true

selves, our potential and inner power. I am encouraging us to take the risk,

find the courage, and act.

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The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an

experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

Kotveinu B’Serfer HaChaim…Melech Hafetz Ba’Chaim:

God, with your help, let us write good stories in our book of life, and

grant us blessing, peace and sustenance.

May we be remembered and inscribed, we and all your people, and all

good people everywhere, for a good, healthy, prosperous and peaceful life.

And we say AMEN