What We Can be Certain of Even in Uncertain Times: Using the New Year to Find our Inner Voice

This past year has been one of unprecedented challenge. No matter one’s personal circumstances, the shifts and pivots we have all had to make on an individual, communal, nationa,l and global scale have been enormous. And perhaps, even greater than the changes we have had to undertake, is living with the uncertainty of not knowing what will come next. 

While often the High Holidays are a time of self-reflection and a commitment to change, this year’s Holiday season affords us an opportunity to look anew at these Days of Awe, and utilize them to examine what we are certain of in this uncertain world. 

Rosh Hashanna liturgy contains the sentiment, “Hayom Harat Olam”, today the world was born, and we often conceptualize Rosh Hashanna as the first day of creation. Yet, there is an important Rabbinic understanding that Rosh Hashanna commemorates not the creation of the world, but rather, the creation of the human being.

In Leviticus Rabbah 29:1, we are taught that the 1st day of the month of Tishrei, otherwise known as Rosh Hashanna, was actually the 6th day of creation and thus, the day on which the human being was created. The Rabbis then go on to poignantly describe this first day in the life of the human being, and list, hour by hour, the steps it took to create Adam. Fascinatingly, we are taught that after God brought Adam into the Garden of Eden and commanded the Human not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, it took the Human exactly one hour from commandment to transgression of this commandment. 

This text is making a bold statement: inherent in the creation of the Human being is the capacity for making mistakes. Unlike the angels of the Divine court, we were never supposed to be perfect; we were always going to be flawed. 

Human imperfection is a Certainty. 

And yet, at the conclusion of that same Midrash in Leviticus Rabbah, we are told, that on the first day of Creation, while the human being sinned, they were also forgiven. And just as it took the human only one hour to transgress the commandment it also took the Divine only one hour to forgive Adam.  

The text ends with this statement: God said to Adam: This is a sign for your children, just as you stood before Me on this day (Rosh Hashanna – y.e.), and you were pardoned, so too your children will stand before Me in judgment on this day and they will be pardoned before Me.

“Human beings are imperfect and make mistakes, and yet, their forgiveness is also inherent to the Human experience. ”

The message here is clear. Human beings are imperfect and make mistakes, and yet, their forgiveness is also inherent to the Human experience. While God understands our humanity, we must still acknowledge our mistakes, and stand in judgement. Yet, that process holds within it a guarantee for compassion and forgiveness on the part of the Divine. 

And for those who perhaps have a hard time connecting to the concept of Divine forgiveness, I invite you to consider reading these sentences as being about compassion in general – compassion for others, and for ourselves – both of which are critical during these Day of Awe. 

Forgiveness and Compassion are a Certainty. 

On Rosh Hashanna, we are invited to embrace both of these certainties – that we are imperfect, and that we are worthy of compassion. 

The Unetaneh Tokef prayer, a harrowing and enigmatic liturgical poem wrapped in mystery, describes this tenuous balance perfectly when it states: You will open the Book of Remembrances — it will read itself – and each person's signature is there. And the great shofar will be sounded, and a Kol Demama Daka - a silent, thin, voice will be heard.

The Shofar in this poem represents a great loud sound - our heart’s cry, pouring out our fears, hopes, needs. It is a call to notice all that is broken around us - awakening us to that which is not yet perfect in ourselves, and in our world. 

Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen, in his book Prayer and Penitence, explains, that contrary to this great noise, there is also a Kol Demama Daka – a silent voice, representing the Divine within each one of us. The inherent Tzelem Elohim – Human dignity that each one of us carries. This voice calls to us differently. It asks us to believe that we are worthy of compassion, and love, just by being human. We do not have to do or be anything other than who we are.  

Your Inherent Human Dignity is a Certainty

The juxtaposition of these two themes – the Great Shofar – where we are awakened to imperfection, and the Kol Demama – the silent voice - where we are awakened to our own worthiness – asks us to hold these two truths simultaneously and spurs us toward action. 

In these dark times, when we look around and so much brokenness surrounds us, there is so much pain and suffering everywhere, and so much human imperfection, we are called to look within ourselves. We must find our own Kol Demama Daka – our own Divine voice. We must allow it to guide ourselves towards self-compassion, compassion for others, and compassion for our very broken world. 

But compassion is not enough. We must pick up the Great Shofar and cry out – we must raise our voices and undertake to fix all that is broken in our own world. We must bring all of ourselves, our imperfections, and our inherent goodness, to bear on this world.  

You have the Power to fix some of what is broken – that too is a Certainty. 

Rabba Yaffa Epstein is the Director of the Wexner Heritage Program, at The Wexner Foundation. Previously she worked as Director of Education, North America for the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and has been a Scholar in Residence for organizations such as Moishe House, JFNA, The Covenant Foundation, Nahum Goldmann Fellowship, Repair the World, Meorot Fellowship, KADIMA Fellowship and the Jewish Education Project.