Rosh HaShanah 2003

Rabbi Leila Gal Berner, 9/17/2003
Updated to link an audio file on 9-30-05

ISAAC AND ISHMAEL
copyright 1989 Rabbi Leila Gal Berner
(First two verses can be sung in Hebrew/Arabic or English)

Shalom aleichem, aleichem shalom, shalom
Shalom aleichem, aleichem shalom.

Long ago the rabbis took from the story of an enemy of ancient Israel a teaching of compassion even for enemies. And in our own generation, Rabbi Shefa Gold has done the same thing in a different way with the same story. Both ways deserve to be honored in our Rosh Hashanah gatherings.

The story of Sisera's Mother appears in Judges 5: 24-31, as part of the Song of Deborah. This is how the Bible tells the tale, picking up after the brutal general Sisera has been defeated, flees the battlefield, and takes refuge in the tent of Ya'el:

Blessed above women shall Ya'el be,
The wife of Hever the Kenite,

Rabbi Phyllis Berman, 9/12/2003

Long ago and far away is where most stories start; but this one begins in my own life. One day when I was 16, I came home from school very upset. My mother asked me what was wrong. I told her that Danny, the-love-of-my-life, was spending a lot of time with my second-best-friend Tamar. And I was frightened. I could only see Danny on weekends because he went to a different high school; but Tamar got to see him all the time - at school and at their synagogue's youth group. At the moment they were only friends, but I knew that Tamar really liked Danny, and I knew that he was also interested in her.

by Rabbi Edward Feld

Abaye expounded: The disagreement regarding how to sound the teruah revolves around the following: The Biblical verse in Numbers 29 instructs 'It should be a day of sounding the teruah," and the Aramaic translation for 'teruah' is , 'yevavah.'

Now regarding the mother of Sisera, the Bible remarks that when she heard of her son's death, "the mother of Sisera stood at the window 'vativav.'" One opinion is that the meaning is that she sighed and sighed and therefore the teruah should sound like shevarim a gasping sound, and one opinion is that she cried and cried and therefore the sound of the teruah should be constantly broken like uncontrollable crying. (B.T. Rosh Hashonnah 33b)
[see Rabbi Shefa Gold's article on Sisera's Mother]

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, 9/2/2003

Reverend colleagues of the clergy, Mme. President and Administrators of Oberlin College, academic colleagues, Graduating Students and their celebrating parents,

For this moment, which we got to live, to experience, and to celebrate we give thanks: Shehechiyanu!

Psalm 100
This is how you sing to God a thank You song.
You join the symphony of the whole Earth
In your gratefulness you meet Him,
voices echo joy in God's halls.
In giving thanks we engage Her blessings.
We meet His goodness here and now,
Her encouragement from generation to generation.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 9/2/2003

The traditional Rosh Hashanah Torah readings encompass the expulsion of Ishmael and the binding of Isaac. It seems to me that in our generation, it would be of great value to add, either on Rosh Hashanah or precisely as

9/2/2003

[This essay was sent to New Menorah, but we cannot find its author or address.]

And G-d spoke to Moses, saying: Command the Children of Israel that they must expel from the camp anyone with Tzora, and any from whom flows a seminal discharg

Rev. Patricia Pierce

Casting Stones and Ashes:

For vibrant lives suddenly and shamelessly sacrificed we lift up the ashes of our loss, O God.

For the lives that co