On Rosh Hashanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed
How many pass on, How many shall come to be
Who will live and who will die
Who shall see ripe age and who shall not
Who by fire and who by water
Who by sword and who by beast……But repentance prayer and charity temper the stern decree. [Gates of repentance 313]
While hearing the cantor reciting this piece of liturgy, I thought about something I hadn’t before. Six times the verb-root avar (עבר) shows up in Netaneh Tokef. It was the passage above which first caught my eye using this verb in two very different meanings, one of which the Reform Prayer book Gates of Repentance quoted above happens to translate loosely.
Avar in its simplest meaning is to pass or cross. Checking with my dictionary, I found seventeen meanings in three conjugations for this one verbal root. Reading the dictionary further, I found something interesting about this word. Many of these meanings can also mean their opposite. Depending on conjugation and context it can mean to be dead or to be pregnant. It can also mean to sin and to forgive.
Yet, Netaneh Tokef, in its essence comes down to the one phrase, with its key verb an avar root word. But repentance prayer and charity pardon (ma’AViRin) the stern decree. By doing the right things, we prevent the bad things. Last week I talked about Repentance, about changing direction. It’s good to have a pause to do that, however distressing it is, to be lost and directionless for a moment then to turn.
This week I’ve been thinking about the second of those, prayer. For many they read that key phrase in Netaneh Tokef phrase with an implicit addition: But repentance prayer and charity on this day pardon the stern decree. While discussing the state of dating with a friend, I quoted a survey done in 2004 of a popular Jewish singles dating service. Of the sample of 402 singles ages 18-40, 54% go to high holidays services only, 30% attend at least one Shabbat a year and 16% never go at all. The 2000-2001 National Jewish Population survey notes observance has similar, though not necessarily comparable numbers for the entire American Jewish population. 59% fast on Yom Kippur at least part of the day, and 27% attend services at least once a month. In either case, we have almost double who attend services in one ten day stretch than those who attend services even sporadically throughout the year. The prayer of Netaneh Tokef apparently is you pray for yourself on this one day and then go back to your life.
But what is prayer? Is this a good way for the individual to look at prayer? A few Al Heits and skipping breakfast and lunch does the trick? That seems as sensible and effective as a crash diet for ten days a year, then hitting the all-you-can-eat dessert table every day for the other 355.
As I said last week, I make a different assumption here than does this majority and the pshat of Netana Tokef. The High Holidays are not the only day of Judgement all year, with a decree to be given at the close of the Neilah service. Instead, the Days of Awe might be used as a sample of the patterns we have established that need change.
Holiness, whether we believe it or not, is everywhere. God speaks to us all the time. Most never “hear” God. I believe its not that God isn’t saying anything but we are not listening or perceiving what God tells and shows us. It is the still small voice of Netaneh Tokef and of Elijah in I Kings 19:12. How do we learn to hear better? Through prayer, which is a way of getting in tune and learning to listen to Holiness. It’s not a one time thing once a year, but a continual thing. It’s not even a three time a day thing but a hundred every day blessings for the things in the world around us.
How many of us have ever really spent the time to realize and appreciate it is God who made the cloud and moves it, grass that both grows and withers, The flowers both growing and wilting and the light and the shadow the cloud and the sun cast. The wind and the dust that flies through the air is also God driven. All of it is interconnected as well. The wind moves the dust and the cloud, the flowers and grass grow or wilt depending on the size of those clouds. A big one rains precious water for nourishment, yet without the wind to move it, the cloud may also obscure the sun in shadow and make growth difficult for the plants. That shade may yet also keep the sun from burning the grass and flowers.
The Netaneh Tokef talks about flowers, shade, wind and grass. Such are used in metaphors for passing on, for death. Yet maybe they mean something else, something that seeing holiness in the world puts into context. The world is always moving, passing from state to state. The cherry blossom wilts to bring on the cherry, the cherry falls, rots or is eaten by animals to leave the seed somewhere else for a new tree to grow. Flowers give way to seeds, a unique metaphor for the dual meaning of death and pregnancy in our word Avar.
In our secular world we tend to think in terms of business as usual. We are so loudly being static or listening to the loud sounds of fire and water, sword and beast, hunger and thirst, earthquake and plague we do not hear the still small voice. All of those do require attention but that attention is so much more when we make a habit of stopping and listening to the still small voice which can cause angels to tremble in fear. We must think in terms of the holiness of transition, of Avar, of passing from one state to another. It’s the dynamic way the world is constantly changing in response to a voice we cannot usually hear.
Our prayers on Yom Kippur are not the only ones we need to make. But they mark a point where we can begin to add prayer and blessing to our habits and daily and weekly practices. Be it set liturgy or not, in Hebrew, Yiddish or English doesn’t matter as much as the act of praising God and noticing how much we have to praise, how holy the world is and our responsibility to such a world of holiness.
In his last interview, Abraham Joshua Heschel stated “Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.” As we enter into the Day of Atonement, if you cannot concentrate on any of the prayers in the Mahzor, try to think about that remarkable statement.
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