Rosh HaShana 5751. September 20, 1990.
President Bush was planning an attack on Iraq. A Likud Prime Minister in Israel was dealing with an intifada. Sound familiar?
I was fresh out of high school, starting my year of study in yeshiva in Israel, at Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati. That Rosh HaShana was very special for me. We spent the three-day holiday in the yeshiva, and for all of us it was the first time in such an inspirational environment for services. Besides the wonderful tefila, we also heard many fascinating shiurim from the rabbis of the yeshiva.
One night, we all went over to hear a talk from the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Bigman, while sitting on the lawn in front of his house. He had us read from the Ramban on Bamidbar 10:6. Here's some of that text:
"A 'truah' they shall blow for their journeys". The truah alludes to the divine attribute of justice, and it is that attribute which brings victory in war, as it is written, "And when you go to war in your land you shall sound a truah".
"But when the assembly is to be gathered together sound a tkiah". They are deserving that the tkiah be sounded, for the pshutah (plain long and continuous sound) alludes to the divine attribute of mercy, for "His right hand is pshutah (stretched out) to receive the penitent" (as it is stated during Neilah prayers, a time of mercy).
And it is written "And in the day of your gladness and your appointed seasons, sound a tkiah" since war is suitable for truah (which alludes to the attribute of justice) and the appointed seasons and joyous occasions are for mercy (i.e. the sound of tkiah which alludes to mercy).
Rav Bigman explained that the reason truah is associated with justice and tkiah with mercy is connected to the length of the blasts. Truah is a very short blast - similar to one point on a line, one instant in time. Tkiah is a long blast, comparable to an entire line, the whole length of time. Justice requires looking only at the time that the verdict is being made. Mercy allows us to also look at what happened before and after the act.
This point was made clear during the talk, when Rav Bigman's toddler daughter disrupting the shiur. He said he could get upset with her, but he knew that once she grew older her behavior would improve. We often think that justice is more reflective of the truth than mercy, but Rav Bigman showed how mercy, rachamim, actually is closer to the truth since it incorporates the consideration of all of time.
Human courts, batei "din", can only take into account the attribute of justice. We cannot see what will happen in the future; our perspective is limited to the here and now. However in the divine world, rachamim also exists. This is why teshuva is possible in the eyes of God. Teshuva in the human justice system would be absurd - why should people not be punished simply because they repent and promise that they won't commit the crime again? God, however, has a greater perspective, the perspective of rachamim, of tkiah, and can see the whole picture, enabling him to accept our teshuva.
The similarities between Rosh HaShana 5751 and 5763 can be seen along these lines as well. In a way, the truah is similar to a siren. A short wail that wakes us up, alerting us to danger. As the Ramban stated, the truah is associated with war. War, and especially the death that accompanies it, is the ultimate truah, since one killed in war stops to exist in time (in this world). Then, and now, the in streets of Israel one hears the sirens of war. In the Gulf War, the air raid sirens indicated an in-coming Scud missile, and we all entered our sealed rooms. Today, ambulance sirens often announce a pigua, a terrorist attack, yet there are no sealed rooms in which to seek shelter.
Just as the Rabbis decreed that our truah should always be intertwined with tkiah, so, too, do we hear the sounds of the tkiah, perhaps even the tkiah hagdola (ultimate redemption based on mercy). In 1990, we had the beginnings of the massive immigration from the Soviet Union. Towards the end of my year in Israel, in May of 1991, we witnessed the miraculous Operation Shlomo, which brought to Israel tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews. Today we are also seeing signs of tkiah; increased immigration from Argentina and France; the wonderful project of Nefesh B'Nefesh bringing American olim to Israel; and even here in Efrat, dozens of new families moving into our neighborhood, despite the "matzav".
Tkiah represents ingathering, because people who have a sense of history, who can see the bigger picture, the greater timeline, also know that they need to physically be together with their nation. And tkiah, as the Ramban said, also represents the joyous occasions, the chagim, for the chagim tie us into our nation?s history as we celebrate in ways that generations of our people did before us.
It is our wish that this New Year will testify to God's mercy conquering his anger, as we merit the ingathering of our people, and only joyous occasions in our streets.
--------------------------------------------------
David Curwin is a systems administrator living in Efrat. He can be reached at tobyndave@hotmail.com
President Bush was planning an attack on Iraq. A Likud Prime Minister in Israel was dealing with an intifada. Sound familiar?
I was fresh out of high school, starting my year of study in yeshiva in Israel, at Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati. That Rosh HaShana was very special for me. We spent the three-day holiday in the yeshiva, and for all of us it was the first time in such an inspirational environment for services. Besides the wonderful tefila, we also heard many fascinating shiurim from the rabbis of the yeshiva.
One night, we all went over to hear a talk from the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Bigman, while sitting on the lawn in front of his house. He had us read from the Ramban on Bamidbar 10:6. Here's some of that text:
"A 'truah' they shall blow for their journeys". The truah alludes to the divine attribute of justice, and it is that attribute which brings victory in war, as it is written, "And when you go to war in your land you shall sound a truah".
"But when the assembly is to be gathered together sound a tkiah". They are deserving that the tkiah be sounded, for the pshutah (plain long and continuous sound) alludes to the divine attribute of mercy, for "His right hand is pshutah (stretched out) to receive the penitent" (as it is stated during Neilah prayers, a time of mercy).
And it is written "And in the day of your gladness and your appointed seasons, sound a tkiah" since war is suitable for truah (which alludes to the attribute of justice) and the appointed seasons and joyous occasions are for mercy (i.e. the sound of tkiah which alludes to mercy).
Rav Bigman explained that the reason truah is associated with justice and tkiah with mercy is connected to the length of the blasts. Truah is a very short blast - similar to one point on a line, one instant in time. Tkiah is a long blast, comparable to an entire line, the whole length of time. Justice requires looking only at the time that the verdict is being made. Mercy allows us to also look at what happened before and after the act.
This point was made clear during the talk, when Rav Bigman's toddler daughter disrupting the shiur. He said he could get upset with her, but he knew that once she grew older her behavior would improve. We often think that justice is more reflective of the truth than mercy, but Rav Bigman showed how mercy, rachamim, actually is closer to the truth since it incorporates the consideration of all of time.
Human courts, batei "din", can only take into account the attribute of justice. We cannot see what will happen in the future; our perspective is limited to the here and now. However in the divine world, rachamim also exists. This is why teshuva is possible in the eyes of God. Teshuva in the human justice system would be absurd - why should people not be punished simply because they repent and promise that they won't commit the crime again? God, however, has a greater perspective, the perspective of rachamim, of tkiah, and can see the whole picture, enabling him to accept our teshuva.
The similarities between Rosh HaShana 5751 and 5763 can be seen along these lines as well. In a way, the truah is similar to a siren. A short wail that wakes us up, alerting us to danger. As the Ramban stated, the truah is associated with war. War, and especially the death that accompanies it, is the ultimate truah, since one killed in war stops to exist in time (in this world). Then, and now, the in streets of Israel one hears the sirens of war. In the Gulf War, the air raid sirens indicated an in-coming Scud missile, and we all entered our sealed rooms. Today, ambulance sirens often announce a pigua, a terrorist attack, yet there are no sealed rooms in which to seek shelter.
Just as the Rabbis decreed that our truah should always be intertwined with tkiah, so, too, do we hear the sounds of the tkiah, perhaps even the tkiah hagdola (ultimate redemption based on mercy). In 1990, we had the beginnings of the massive immigration from the Soviet Union. Towards the end of my year in Israel, in May of 1991, we witnessed the miraculous Operation Shlomo, which brought to Israel tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews. Today we are also seeing signs of tkiah; increased immigration from Argentina and France; the wonderful project of Nefesh B'Nefesh bringing American olim to Israel; and even here in Efrat, dozens of new families moving into our neighborhood, despite the "matzav".
Tkiah represents ingathering, because people who have a sense of history, who can see the bigger picture, the greater timeline, also know that they need to physically be together with their nation. And tkiah, as the Ramban said, also represents the joyous occasions, the chagim, for the chagim tie us into our nation?s history as we celebrate in ways that generations of our people did before us.
It is our wish that this New Year will testify to God's mercy conquering his anger, as we merit the ingathering of our people, and only joyous occasions in our streets.
--------------------------------------------------
David Curwin is a systems administrator living in Efrat. He can be reached at tobyndave@hotmail.com