SHANAH TOVAH Lachem! And Hayom Harat Olam! 

(this sermon was delivered Erev Rosh Hashanah 5783)

Good year to y’all, and Today the World is created!  

 Today, is the world’s birthday! And, across the planet… in this time local time – Jews HAVE gathered, ARE gathering and WILL gather in community to remember and observe this birthday of the world. 

That’s is a LOT of Jews. With that many Jews.. you KNOW there is a diversity of opinion, right? Which is nothing new. It’ll come as NO surprise to you that there were (and still are) opinions as to exactly WHEN the world was created.   

Hayom Harat Olam – but what does that mean? 

Fifteen hundred years ago… give or take, one set of rabbis in our Talmud, posited that the world was created in Tishrei – the month we just began. They determined that on Rosh Hashanah, that NOT ONLY was our world but also, it was the day of the birth AND later deaths of our Patriarchs, AND, that Sarah, Rachel AND Hannah all conceived… AND for good measure, at Rosh HaShanah, Joseph was also freed from prison in Egypt.  

AND… in a few more lines of parchment, another set of rabbis equally definitively set NISAN – the month in which we celebrate Passover – OUR freedom from slavery in Egypt .. DEFINITELY as the month in which the world was created, and the patriarchs were born.

 SO… absorb those 2 thoughts… and now, skip forward to the 12th century… the rabbis took note again of the Hebrew… that  HARAT does not mean birthday. It means CONCEPTION, or Pregnancy. And that’s true, even in modern Hebrew, by the way.  SO, in THEIR opinion, they determined that both sets of earlier rabbis could be correct… and that the rabbis had understood that "Both views are 'the words of the living God.'  <because> One may say that in Tishrei <this month> it occurred to God to create/or conceive of the world, but God did not actually do so until Nissan."<Passover> - the world was not BORN… ‘til Passover.  

 SO, my friends,  l’Shanah tovah, for a GOOD year, and  

HAYOM HARAT OLAM.. TODAY the world is PREGNANT… being made.. BECOMING.    

For weeks now, many Jews have been approaching this moment, anticipating the shofar blasts.. hearing the story of Jonah again… and hopefully, taking more than a passing moment, to revisit our own connectedness and spirituality …  

contemplating that which we value in our lives… 

… identifying habits and things that get in the way of us being our better selves, preparing to cast those stumbling blocks away at Tashlich… and do the work to clean the slate in relationships –  

 with both ourselves,  

others…  

and God.  

So that that WE can enter into this year near and BE ready to be better…

This evening IS a pregnant moment – we are at the very beginning of a new, fresh year… and  … just as we look at a new baby… marveling at the miracle of those little fingers and toes… and imagine the things that little baby’s hands will do.. and wonder where their teeny feet will eventually take them…  

I wonder…  

Could we look at OUR entrance into this new year of our world as something similar?  Both the year… and WE /EACH OF US, are full of unknown potential.  

 What could we do, THIS year?   

As I look at this room (and online) I see people who have made so much impact by living their lives… making choices – big ones and little.  

I mean, some of you just kind of took a chance a while back.. and MOVED here to this glorious place…. To see what you COULD do and become. You built your lives here.  You took chances.  

And… as I look to this year to come… I am very curious to see what each of us will do with our lives and our communities.  We are in year 3 Coronavirus – (this is my first High Holy Days in person since 2019, when I stood here.)  THIS year … we are creating a new normal of living with the Coronavirus…  

SO, I wonder, given this season … of days of AWE.. when we recite the untanetokef  prayer, about who will live … or not… what if we imagined that this year was our last year to walk the earth? That somehow our fate was sealed… and next year, we are to pass?  

What would each of us do, with just twelve months of life, left?  

Which bridges would be mended?  

Which books would be read?  

Which places on the planet would we go see?  

What ONE more thing would we set out to learn 

What would be most important for us to share?  

I’m serious. The holy spark of light we each have only exists so long in these bodies. What IF EACH of us were to each take this coming year … and consciously set about learning more about one new topic, doing something desperately important to us that we think we’ll do … SOMEDAY… or to engage, learn and grow ourselves and our community.  

Take a moment to imagine the potential impact on our world…   

 HaYom Harat OLAM – today the world is conceived … may we move forward into these days of Awe… and truly feel awe

at this world in which we live – with ALL its joys and sorrows –  may we reach out to family and perhaps start the process of mending something broken …   

and THOUGHTFULLY examine ourselves with an honest, AND LOVING EYE…   

as we move forward together in community into a sweet and blessed year 

Shanah tovah, indeed ---