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December 29, 2023 (18 Tevet 5784) Parasha Vayechi - Should Jews Celebrate?
Dear Friends, I hope this correspondence finds you well and in good health & cheer. Please join us this Saturday morning for Shabbat services, which will take place in our sanctuary beginning at 10:00 am. The services will be available on our Zoom prayer link, but we would, of course, prefer to see you in person! Kiddush will be served after a stirring rendition of Adon Olam! At this time of year, we are apt to investigate a Talmudic concept referred to as עניני דיומא, or the “issues of the day.” Last week, I wrote about a commonly asked question regarding the symbolism of Christmas trees. Today, I will address the question of whether it is appropriate for Jewish folks to celebrate the upcoming secular year of 2024. Reasonably, you may question the appropriateness of such topic matters in a synagogue email, so allow me to provide some historical context. According to a recently published article written from the Herzog Academy of Halacha in Israel, for thousands of years Rabbis have used their position in a community as a platform to express reactions towards contemporary issues arising from living as a minority population. Such a platform typically expressed as a “sermon” or speech was initially referred to as homily, which is used to this day cross-culturally and cross-denominationally. Backing up some fifteen hundred years, the blossoming of the Eretz Yisraeli Midrash in the time of the Talmud was a result of the demanding conditions under which the Sages functioned. The Jews of Eretz Yisrael were required to cope with difficulties in many areas: the economic crisis that affected the whole empire, which caused poverty and hunger amongst the Jews; the lowered status of the Academy; the emigration to Bavel (Babel); life alongside foreigners; the growth of Christianity; and more. The hypothesis is that alongside their extensive work within the realm of applied Jewish law, or Halacha, the Sages prepared homilies in which they inserted indirect teachings and veiled instructions on how to cope with the new conditions. Often, the חכמים, or Sages, "used" Biblical personalities or other religious constructs as a parable for the apprehensions of the time, and the Rabbis’ attitudes to those Torah figures or Talmudic legal phrases often served as an allegory for addressing the dilemmas of the day. With that as the groundwork for considering the “permissibility” and appropriateness of going to Times Square (which I don’t suggest doing regardless), let us consider if it is “Jewish” to participate in the upcoming weekend’s festivities. Firstly, Mishna Rosh Hashanah begins with the curious phrase of אַרְבָּעָה רָאשֵׁי שָׁנִים הֵם indicating that Jews celebrate four(!) New Years during the course of a calendrical cycle: on the first of Nisan is the New Year for kings; the first of Elul is the New Year for animal tithes; the first of Tishrei is the New Year for counting years (our Rosh Hashana), and the first of Shevat is the New Year for the trees (although Beit Hillel said that the New Year for trees is on the fifteenth of Shevat, which we refer to today as Tu Bishvat). Clearly, celebrating or marking time, in one way or another, is entrenched in our Jewish practice. If we can do 4 New Years, why not do 5? Secondly, if we discount a questionable historical comment, which suggests that Dec. 31 was the party the night before the circumcision of Jesus, we can further explore customs surrounding the practices of the day. The most prevalent practice of the secular New Year includes offering New Year’s resolutions. A New Year's resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western World, but also found in the Eastern World, in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, accomplish a personal goal (hence the current spike in gym memberships), or otherwise improve their behavior. From the Jewish perspective, such a practice of change and self-improvement definitely resonates greatly as being Jewish. With that as background, I would suggest that we do, in fact, have Halachic permissibility to participate in a “Jewish” New Year’s celebration. So, here is my rabbinic advice for Sunday night December 31: if you are eating, say a Bracha (blessing); if you are dancing, dance the Hora; and if you are having a L’chayim (toast), make a Borei Pri Hagafen! And finally, allow me to offer the following two thousand and twenty-four resolutions! Sorry, the editor limited me only to four, so here are the first four of our CBIOTP’s resolutions for the New Year:
As we enter into Shabbat, please consider using the sacred time offered by the day to meditate upon how to bring your best self to the New Year. How can you enrich your study and prayer? How can you more fully support your local synagogue and its efforts? How can you strive to make the world a better place? Let me know what you come up with before Jan. 1! Shabbat Shalom and Shanna Tova,
Rabbi Eric L. Wasser, EdD, Hon.DM
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