Published: 1 October 2019
Last updated: 5 April 2024
MY WIFE, A RABBI, used to have us skip shul with the kids on the second day of Rosh Hashanah to hike around Walden Pond in celebration of the birthday of the world. The kids would run ahead, shofar in hand, to find a beautiful spot to do family tashlich, as the colourful leaves of the surrounding woods would wave to us in the gentle wind.
The small pond in Concord, Massachusetts has an outsized influence in Western letters and thought due to the writings of Henry David Thoreau, a student of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who lived simply for two years in a basic cabin and wrote of his simple life. His transcendent thoughts on nature, the need for a spiritual awakening and the realisation how much humanity is inseparable from nature all flow through his signature book, Walden.
So much of Rosh Hashanah, and the Ten Days of Repentance, is about prayers, food and supplications that one would be forgiven for missing one of the central tenets of the holiday, taught by Thoreau: That material goods cannot fix inner brokenness. And only by fixing inner brokenness can we truly stand up to injustice in government and economic corruption in the world.
The scorching year will determine for millions of people who shall live and who shall die. Who by water - super storms and rising sea levels; and who by fire - increased wildfires due to drought. Who by famine - due largely to climate change and who by thirst, with growing desertification. And who by earthquakes - which now plague lands being fracked; and who by plague, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) warning that diseases will rapidly spread by bugs migrating from increasing heat zones.
And who will be at peace, who shall wander - note the record number of refugees in the world; and who shall be pursued.
The Jewish people have shown that when we put our minds to work, we can make miracles happen. We demonstrated that clearly with the improbable return to Zion after 2000 years, the various rescue operations of Jews in far-flung countries and the creation of one of the most innovative economies in history.
