Rabbi's Greeting
Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton
First Day, Rosh Hashanah 5766
October 3, 2005

Shana tova to all.

This traditional new year's greeting means, of course, literally "good year," our colloquial wish for a happy Jewish new year.

The word for year, shana, also can mean change. Have a good change, we implicitly wish each other, with every greeting, card, or prayer. And with every thought, feeling and action that follows this night, we live out that wish, with the clearest intention that these ten days of prayer and reflection set us on course of change - for the good.

Each year at this juncture of the service, just as we have gathered, and before we begin our formal prayers as a community, I've taken the opportunity to reflect on the character of the new year through its new "name," or actually, its number. Since Hebrew numbers are represented by letters, we get a changing word, or a new sum, that often leads to insights.

Some years, I've turned ordinal gematria, for example; that's the technique that gives of the meaning "life" to the number 18, for the sum of the two letters that spell the word. One year, it was simply the new word created by the changing last letter that provided meaning.

This year, I return to a form of gematria that seeks to match the sum of the year letters to a sacred phrase of identical value. For those curious about the details, there is no representation in our year name for 5000; hence, the sum before us is 766.

That value is equivalent to the sum of the phrase:

NO BOWING DOWN, found in the Book of Esther, 3:2. In that context, a man refused to bow down before another man. Tonight, we take this reminder into another realm:

This year, may we neither worship nature, nor revile it for its force.

This year, may we not bow down in submission, but rather offer respect for the natural world, as scientists and advocates, as voters and citizens.

This year, may we act not as idolatrous consumers of nature's bounty, but as reverent guardians of nature's gifts.

This year, may we not venerate our things and their monetary value, nor the things we wish to acquire.

This year, should we be so challenged by the loss of our things, our positions, our status, and other things, may we be supported by caring community, and granted a year of equanimity and re-balance.

This year, may we not be cowed by the mystery, but awed by it.

This year, may the infinite preciousness of what we possess that has no material value be made known to us without external challenges or traumas.

This year, as we begin our prayers, we acknowledge the awe and mystery of all nature, the water and the air - what we are, what we breathe, what gives us life, what enables us to feel joy and gratitude. We wish this for each other, for our loved ones

Our year message also says to us that true humility is an essential element on our path of teshuvah. We remind ourselves, chuckling at the classic Jewish humor, that even our revered leaders may have difficulty discerning the difference between a bow of submission, and a bow of humility:

The rabbi, rushes to the ark in, throws himself to his knees on the ground with religious fervor, and pounds his chest, shouting, "I'm nobody, I'm nobody." Not to be undone in expressions of spiritual humility, the cantor similarly joins the rabbi on his knees, also , shouting, "I'm nobody, I'm nobody." The shames, observing the scene, could no longer restrain himself. His natural piety overtook him as he joined his spiritual leaders on the bimah, prostrating himself while shouting, "I'm nobody, I'm nobody." To which the rabbi remarked to the cantor, "Look who thinks he's nobody."

It's an appropriate association on this day that celebrates the Creation story - its resonance enhance by this teaching from Rabbi Arthur Waskow - adam/adamah the first human's name resonates with the Hebrew for earth, and the word human itself evokes humus, the very essence of the ground. We ground ourselves in our humanity when we are truly, and honestly humble.

So to this string of associations humus-human-humility, with acknowledgement to authors Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham, from their guide "The Spirituality of Imperfection" for the links, and the story, I add: humor!

We rise metaphorically in the face of the unknown days ahead, unbowed, buoyed not necessarily by what we know, but by facing it together. We also rise now physically, those who are able, to bow, with humility before the mystery, and with the strength and power of community, this first eve of the year.