Questions and Texts
The following texts will be discussed at this year's High Holiday Services. They are provided here for those who wish to read them and think about them in advance. Click on the link if you would like to print the text. Copies will also be distributed at services. Our discussions will not be limited to the questions listed here. As always our questions and discussions are only the beginning of our spiritual quest. Rabbi Moskowitz will deliver sermons on Rosh Hashanah Morning, Yom Kippur Evening and Yom Kippur Morning.
Rosh Hashanah Evening
State of Israel's Declaration of Independence
ERETZ YISRAEL - the Land of Israel, was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz Yisrael and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz Yisrael the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the community of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz Yisrael, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz Yisrael; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ YISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ YISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ YISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel".
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz Yisrael.
WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building up of its State and to receive the State of Israel into the community of nations.
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the up-building of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz Yisrael in the tasks of immigration and up-building and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL", WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).
Questions
What are the foundations of the modern State of Israel?
What are the aspirations of the State of Israel?
What is the relationship between the land of Israel and the State of Israel?
What is the relationship between world Jewry and the State of Israel?
Do you think that modern day Israel is living up to its stated aspirations?
Rosh Hashanah Morning Second Day
2 Samuel 11-12: David and Batsheva
At the turn of the year, the season when kings go out to battle, David sent Yoav with his officers and all Israel with him, and they devastated Amnon and beseiged Rabbah; David remained in Jerusalem. Late one afternoon, David rose from his couch and strolled on the roof of the royal palace; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and the king sent someone to make inquiries about the woman. He reported, "She is Batsheva, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite." David sent messengers to fetch her; she came to him and he lay with her--she had just purified herself after her period--and she went back home. The woman conceived, and sent word to David, "I am pregnant." Thereupon David sent a message to Yoav, "Send Uriah the Hittite to me"; and Yoav sent Uriah to David.
When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Yoav and the troops were faring and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and bathe your feet." When Uriah left the royal palace, a present from the king followed him. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace, along with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When David was told that Uriah had not gone to his house, he said to Uriah, "You just came from a journey; why didn't you go down to your house?" Uriah answered David, "The Ark and Israel and Judah are located at Succot, and my master Yoav and Your Majesty's men are camped in the open; how can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As you live, by your very life, I will not do this!" David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you off." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. The next day, David summoned him, and he ate and drank with him until he got him drunk; but in the evening, Uriah went out to sleep in the same place, with his lord's officers; he did not go down to his home.
In the morning, David wrote a letter to Yoav, which he sent with Uriah. He wrote in the letter as follows: "Place Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest; then fall back so that he may be killed." So when Yoav was besieging the city, he stationed Uriah at the point where he knew that there were able warriors. The men of the city sallied out and attacked Yoav, and some of David's officers among the troops fell; Uriah the Hittite was among those who died....
When Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she lamented over her husband. After the period of mourning was over, David sent and had her brought into his palace; she became his wife and she bore him a son.
But the Lord was displeased with what David had done, and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said, "There were two men in the same city, one rich and one poor. The rich man had very large flocks and herds, but the poor man had only one little lamb that he had bought. He tended it and it grew up together with him and his children: it used to share his morsel of bread, drink from his cup, and nestle in his bosom; it was like a daughter to him. One day, a traveler came to the rich man, but he was loath to take anything from his own flocks or herds to prepare a meal for the guest who had come to him; so he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."
David flew into a rage against the man, and said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He shall pay for the lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and showed no pity." And Nathan said to David, "That man is you! Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: 'It was I who anointed you king over Israel and it was I who rescued you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and possession of your master's wives; and I have you the House of Israel and Judah; and if that wee not enough, I would give you twice as much more. Why then have you flouted the command of the Lord and done what displeases him? You have put Uriah the Hittite to the sword; you too his wife and made her your wife and had him killed by the sword of the Ammonites. Therefore the sword shall never depart from your House--because you spurned Me by taking the wife of the Uriah the Hittite and make her your wife.' Thus said the Lord: 'I will make a calamity rise against you from within your own house; I will take your wives and give them to another man before your very eyes and he shall sleep with your wives under this very sun. You acted in secret, but I will make this happen in the sight of all Israel in broad daylight.'"
David said to Nathan, "I stand guilty before the Lord!" And Nathan replied to David, "The Lord has remitted your sin; you shall not die. However, since you have spurned the enemies of the Lord by this deed, even the child about to be born to you shall die."
Nathan went home, and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and it became critically ill. David entreated God for the boy; David fasted, and he went in and spent the night lying on the ground. The senior servants of his household tried to induce him to get up from the ground; but he refused, nor would he partake of food with them. On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell David that the child was dead; for they said, "We spoke to him when the child was alive and he wouldn't listen to us; how can we tell him that the child is dead? He might do something terrible?" When David saw his servants talking in whispers, David understood that the child was dead; David asked his servants, "Is the child dead?" "Yes," they replied.
Thereupon David rose from the ground; he bathed and anointed himself, and he changed his clothes. He went into the House of the Lord and prostrated himself. Then he went home and asked for food, which they set before him, and he ate. His servants asked him, "Why have you acted in this manner? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but now that the child is dead, you rise and take food!" He replied, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept because I thought: 'Who knows? The Lord may have pity on me, and the child may live.' But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will never come back to me."
David consoled his wife Batsheva; he went to her and lay with her. She bore a son and she named him Solomon.
Questions
What do you think of King David? Does it bother you how our greatest hero behaves?
What is your impression of Uriah?
What do you think of Batsheva?
What is your impression of the prophet Nathan and the role of prophets?
Do you think that God was right to forgive David?
Yom Kippur Afternoon
Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Book One: Knowledge
Laws Relating to Moral Dispositions and Ethical Conduct, Chapters 1-2
Chapter 1
1. Every human being is characterized by numerous moral dispositions which differ from each other and are exceedingly divergent. One man is choleric, always irascible; another sedate, never angry; or if he should become angry, is only slightly and very rarely so. One man is haughty to excess; another humble in the extreme. One is a full of desire whose lusts are never sufficiently gratified; another is so pure in soul that he does not even long for the few things that our physical nature needs. One is so greedy that all the money in the world would not satisfy him, as it is said, “He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver” (Ecclesiastes 5:9). Another so curbs his desires that he is contented with very little, even with that which is insufficient, and does not bestir himself to obtain that which he really needs. One will suffer extreme hunger for the sake of saving and does not spend the smallest coin without a pang, while another deliberately and wantonly squanders all his property. In the same way, people differ in other traits. There are, for example, the hilarious and the melancholy, the stingy and generous, the cruel and the merciful, the timid and courageous, and so forth.
3. To cultivate either extreme in any class of dispositions is not the right course nor is it proper for any person to follow or learn it. If a person finds that his nature tends or is disposed to one of these extremes, or if one has acquired and become habituated to it, he should turn back and improve, so as to walk in the way of good people, which is the right way.
4. The right way is the mean in each group of dispositions common to humanity; namely, that disposition which is equally distant from the two extremes in its class, not being nearer to the one than to the other. Hence, our ancient sages exhorted us that a person should always evaluate his dispositions and so adjust them that they shall be at the mean between extremes, and this will secure his physical health. Thus a man should not extremely irritable, easily moved to anger, nor be like the dead without feeling; but should aim at the happy medium; be angry only for a grave cause that rightly calls for indignation, so that the like shall not be done again. He will only desire that which the body absolutely needs and cannot do without, as it is said, “The righteous eats, to satisfy himself” (Proverbs 13:25). He will only labor at his occupation to obtain what is necessary for his sustenance, as it is said, “A little that a righteous person has is better than the riches of the wicked” (Psalms 37:16). He will not be tight-fisted nor yet a spendthrift, but will bestow tzedakah according to his means and give a suitable loan to whoever needs it. He will be neither frivolous and given to jesting, nor mournful and melancholy, but will rejoice all his days tranquilly and cheerfully. And so will he comport himself with regard to all his other dispositions, This is the way of the wise. Whoever observes in his dispositions the mean is termed wise.
5. Whoever is particularly scrupulous and deviates somewhat from the exact mean in disposition, in one direction or the other, is called a saint (hasid). For example, if one avoids snobbishness to the utmost extent and is exceedingly humble, he is termed a saint, and this is the standard of saintliness. If one only departs from snobbishness as far as the mean, and is humble, he is called wise, and this is the standard of wisdom. And so with all other dispositions. The ancient saints trained their dispositions away from the exact mean toward the extremes; in regard to one disposition in one direction; in regard to another in the opposition direction. This was to do more than duty requires. We are bidden to walk in the middle paths which are the right and proper ways, as it is said, “And you shall walk in God’s ways” (Deuteronomy 28:9).
Chapter 2
3. There are some dispositions in regard to which it is forbidden merely to keep the middle path. They must be shunned to the extreme. Such a disposition is pride. The right way in this regard is not to be merely meek, but to be humble-minded and lowly of spirit to the utmost. And therefore was it said of Moses that he was “exceedingly humble,” (Numbers 12:3), not merely that he was “humble.” Hence, our sages exhorted us, “Be exceedingly, exceedingly lowly of spirit” (Pirke Avot 4:4). They also said that anyone who permits his heart to swell with excessive pride has denied the essential principle of our religion, as it is said, “And your heart will be proud, and you will forget the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 8:14). Again have they said, “Under a band be he who is proud, even in the smallest degree.” Anger, too, is an exceedingly bad passion, and one should avoid it to the last extreme. One should train oneself not to be angry even for something that would justify anger. If one wishes to arouse fear in his children and his household, or in the members of a community of which he is the head, and desires to exhibit anger, so that they may amend their ways, he should make s a show of anger before them, so as to correct them, but in reality, his mind should be composed like that of a person who simulates anger and does not really feel it. The ancient sages said, “He who is angry--it is the same as if he worshipped idols.” They also said, “One who yields to anger--if he is a sage, his wisdom departs from him; if he is a prophet, his prophetic gift departs from him.” Those of an irate disposition--their life is not worth living. The sages therefore, charged us that anger should be avoided to such a degree that one should train oneself to be unmoved even by things that naturally would provoke anger; and this is the good way. The practice of the righteous is to suffer harsh words and not inflict it; to hear themselves reproached, not retort; to be impelled in what they do by love, and to rejoice in suffering. Of them Scripture says, “And they that love God are like the going forth of the sun in its strength” (Judges 5:31).
4. One should always cultivate the habit of silence and only converse on topics of wisdom or on matters of moment to one’s existence. Of Rav, disciple of our sainted teacher Rabbi Judah the Prince it was said that throughout his life he never indulged in idle conversation, of which most people’s talk consists. And even of our material needs, we should not speak much. In this connection, our wise men charged, “He who multiplies words causes sin” (Pirke Avot 1:17). They further said, “I have nothing of better service to the body that silence.” So too, in discussing Torah and wisdom, a man’s words should be few but full of meaning. This the sages express in their recommendation: “A man should also teach his disciples tersely.” But where words are many and their meaning is small--that is folly, of which it is said, “For the dream comes with much discussion, and a fool’s voice with an abundance of words” (Ecclesiastes 5:2)
7. One should not indulge in jesting and mockery nor be melancholy and mournful, but one should be cheerful. So our sages said, “Jesting and levity lead a mean on to lewdness” (Pirke Avot 3:17). They further charged that a man should not give way to immoderate laughter nor yet be sad and mournful, but should receive everyone with a cheerful countenance. One should also not cherish large desires--hurrying to get rich--nor be melancholy and idle, but should be contented, engage a little in secular occupation and devote oneself to the study of the Torah, and rejoice in the little one has as his portion. One should not be quarrelsome, jealous, or full of desirel; nor run after honor. Thus our wise men said, “Envy, lust, and ambition take a person from the world” (Pirke Avot 4:2). In fine, in every class of dispositions, a person should choose the mean so that all one’s dispositions shall occupy the exact middle between the extremes. This is what Solomon expressed in the text, “Balance the course of your steps, so that all your ways may be right” (Proverbs 4:26).
Questions
Do you think that Maimonides accurately describes the human condition?
Do you agree with Maimonides that the medium is the ideal?
Why is anger to nearly always be avoided?
Why is pride to be shunned?
How can silence help us become wise?