7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
1/13
Rosh Hashana 5773
Day 2, Drasha
Rabbi Shaanan Gelman
Three Visions of Kedusha
Tehilim , Psalm 81 deals with sounding of the shofarupon the
holiday of Rosh Hashana:
If one looks further into this kpitel, he will note that there is a
peculiar focus upon one individual in particular Yaakov Avinu:
( ):
2Sing aloud unto God our strength; shout unto the God of
Jacob.
: ( )
( ):
5For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
1
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
2/13
Rosh Hashana is thus the holiday in which we make contact with
God, but more specifically, on this day we beseech the God of
Jacob.
And though the is often referred to as the 1
the month of the Avot, there seems to be a vested interest in
Yaakov Avinu.
The Midrash (Tehilim, as well as Yalkut Shimoni) picks up on the
fact that Yaakov has been singled out as the sole representative of
Rosh Hashana and the month of Tishrei, using the followingparable:
( )2
, [' ] ...[ ]
There was once a King who had three dear and beloved
servants. And the King decided to build a Palace in a certain
location
1, : ? : " , :,'
2" ,
, . " ,, ,' " .
, ' , " -" , ,'
' , , ,: , ( ) ,
2
http://www.yeshiva.org.il/responsa/Responsa.aspx?sefer=%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%92%D7%93%D7%94-%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%98-%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%99-%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%90&perek=%D7%A7%D7%A4%D7%90&pasuk=http://www.yeshiva.org.il/responsa/Responsa.aspx?sefer=%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%92%D7%93%D7%94-%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%98-%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%99-%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%90&perek=%D7%A7%D7%A4%D7%90&pasuk=7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
3/13
,
,
He brought the first servant and said I would like to build a
palace, to which the servant replied I recall that this place
used to be a mountain.
,
,He called the second one overand he replied I recall that
this used to be a field.
,
, ,
Finally, he called the third servant overwho replied I recall
that this used to be a Palace. Upon hearing his reply, the
King said I hereby promise to build that palace, and I will
name it after you.
And Midrash explains the nimshal:
3
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
4/13
, "
,',( ),
,( / / ),
" ,( / / )
, ,
' ,( ) '
,( )
. ,
Abraham called the Temple a mountain, Yitzchak referred to it as
a field but Yaakov called the Beit Hamikdash a house.
Says the Kadosh Baruch Hu, I will name the house after you,
Jacob, hence it is called the .
The chazal provide for us 3 distinct visions of greatness:
, , Mountain, field and a house.
What is a mountain and why is that the vision of Avraham Avinu?A mountain is an insurmountable height. It is a challenge, a test of
the wills, a . To climb a mountain, you must be a revolutionary,
a person who confronts the norms of your world, who doesnt
4
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
5/13
cower in the face of opposition, who cultivates social and religious
upheaval. There is a phrase for this kind of individual is so brazen
so as to go against the grain in Torah thought an , one
who uproots mountains.
Over the course of Avrahams life, he is presented with one
after another, each challenge more difficult than the previous.
How appropriate that when he arrives at his most awesome test,
the , that he is told to do so atop a mountain, !
He therefore sees Kedusha, or the (which is the
epitome of kedusha) in the shape of a mountain, because climbing
that mountain was so central to the Jewish world which he had
sown.
Yitzchak envisions a alternative picture of , primarily because
his portfolio is so drastically different than his fathers.
Yitzchaks role isnt to climb and create something new, rather, his
is to maintain and to consolidate.
Yitzchak, the , doesnt struggle to perform the akeidah,though he is undeniably affected by it. He doesnt climb the
mountain, he is led there. Yitzchak doesnt struggle with leaving
Israel, he doesnt even have to worry about dating, he just stands
5
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
6/13
there in his , his field, praying as shows up in his life. In
meantime, was nearly killed by and trying to make
the shidduch a reality.
Yitzchak doesnt dig wells, he maintains them. He doesnt oppose
the world like his father had, he strengthens what has been already
built, fortifies the existing foundation.
To him, holiness isnt a mountain; it is a field a .
The is the market place, it is where the Jew interacts in the
business world, and yet preserves the values established by theprevious generation.
But then Yaakov enters the scene, and he is the perfect
amalgam of his father and grandfather. Yaakov sees the
vision of a building, a home and knows that is the true
shape of the Shechinas resting place. Why a home?
Because the is something which needs to built, but it is
constructed atop the existing foundation. Unlike the
which demands only going into neutral, one has to be
forward thinking and innovative to construct a house, but
not in the radical fashion of Avraham Avinu. The
must advance the cause but he is no revolutionary.
6
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
7/13
It is that vision of greatness which the Sages chose to
invoke the , the house of Jacob.Jacob, the man
who contributed, but never altered; who took
strides forward but was ever mindful of the steps
which had been taken before him.
There is an immaturity of sorts which permeates current
Jewish thinking in many circles. It is the arcane notion that
to establish holiness, I have to be different than my
parents and my grandparents; that everything has to
radically shift in order for God to reside in my presence.
Young adults, more and more are under the impression
that the values passed down have become irrelevant, that
they dont speak to a new generation, that in order to find
God we need to change religion and parenting styles and
what we eat and how we dress.
In truth, there was a time in recent history when we had to
be revolutionary: immediately after the destruction of
European Jewish civilization, we were in survival mode. In
the 40s, 50s and a little bit afterwards the objective was
to build Judaism from ground up. To establish Yeshivot, to
7
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
8/13
found the State of Israel to climb the proverbial
mountain!
But as we established Jewish life, we learned to coast, to
maintain, to hold onto the newfound Yiddish revival. In
short, we shifted from the to the , wherein it was no
longer an uphill climb, but an act of consolidation. The
hero was no longer the person who founded a day
school but the person who sent their children to a
Jewish day school.
You see, to Yitzchak, it is still a mountain, its just that
from the top, it looks like a field.
Thats why, after the akeida, Avraham descends the
mountain but Yitzchak doesnt accompany his father. For
Yitzchaks mission statement is different.
Alas, we have entered a new generation, the third
generation after the holocaust has arrived, and now we
have to build a atop the field, which rests on that
mountain of Avraham Avinu.
And the question is what have we accomplished? Have we
indeed constructed that home? Or are we stuck on one of
the first two modus operandi of Avraham and Yitzchak?
8
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
9/13
We either attempt change everything we see, to climb a
new mountain, or we have set assail into the sea eternal
boredom with the flat of Yitzchak.
Radical reformation of Judaism is certainly rampant, but so
is over satisfaction.
So many of us have simply gone into cruise control we
dont see the need to grow, to cultivate and to add to what
has been established 40 years ago.
We think that our schools are perfect, that our educational
system is not in need of any tweaking, and if someone
suggests so then they are not a Zionist or they are an
extremist. And we think that our shuls are perfect, but if
someone wants to have a davening free of conversation
he or she should shop elsewhere. Worse yet, we think that
we are the fully developed and fully perfected Jew and we
say to our children things like whats wrong with the
way I turned out? Am I not religious enough?
On Rosh Hashana we must ask:
What are we going to add in the coming year? What kind
of house are we going to construct?
9
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
10/13
As the descendants of Yaakov we are mindful of our past
while we take careful steps forward.
As the this has meaning on two levels, the
personal and the global:
In the realm of the personal:
We must continue a life of shemirat mitzvoth and amidst
the challenges of tuition of aging parents of paying the
bills and struggling to carve out a niche socially, we have
to make room for growth, for a Binyan. No more status
quo! No more waiting around in the field for miracles to
happen! Because our homes wont become holy if we
merely become preservers of the old and act as docents in
a museum. Judaism has to come alive again. Not different
than yesterday, but not stale.
Sometimes you get the impression that the seuda on
Shabbos has been preserved for centuries in a jar of
formaldehyde, our kids deserve more than that... for them
we must build. But at the same time, they have to know
that they are on top of the mountain because someone
made the climb for them, that it is a zechus to be Jewish,
that they ought to be proud of what their parents
constructed though never too proud to make some repairs
and add a new coat of paint.
10
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
11/13
But there is also an important message for the Jewish
people as a whole:
The free countries of this earth are shaking in their
collective boots at the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran.
And what has been their response? In Europe they have said
nothing, in America, they are too busy campaigning to save their
political careers to notice that it is their lives in need of rescue.
Because most of the world is preoccupied with a business as usual
attitude. An attitude, that none can affect me, and that I
will remain secure indefinitely. There was a time and a place for
such an attitude, the golden era of Post WWII and perhaps
immediately after the Cold War, when in the States it was assumed
that we were the worlds economic superpower and undisputed
military giant. But Iran has stripped us of that leisure, and
everyone knows it.
And why is the world silent in the face of perhaps the most
frightening reality since the dawn of humanity?
We are the ones who took on Nazi Tyranny and who told theRussians to take down the wall! What happened to the land of the
free and the home of the brave?
The answer is that everyone has put their hopes in Israel.
11
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
12/13
The world is not afraid because they all say Israel will take care of it.
Because Israel understands that if there is a problem, Im not going to
wait around for someone else to be my partner, if there is a hungry person,
I am going to feed them our mantra of means after me, we go
firstand the world can sleep a little easier because this little tiny country
called Israel will not quail or withdraw in the face of a challenge.
And on that day when David comes forward to fight Goliath the world
will sigh in relief.
This is the of our father Jacob, who runs away from his maniacal
brother Esav, when he has a dream. In that dream he envisions a place of
serenity and security and as he probes into that vision a little further and
he sees a house, suddenly, he awakens and proclaims:
Yaakov had discovered the secret of Jewish survival
build
Build a Jewish family, bring Jewish children into this world,
dont be afraid when they tell you its not economically
sound and that tuition costs are too high!If you had a target on your head like Yaakov did, you
probably would not decide that it was the best time to
marry four women and bear twelve sons, but Yaakov did.
12
7/31/2019 Rosh Hashana - 5773 Day 2
13/13
Because he understands that in order for the contributions
of Avraham and Yitzchak to mean anything at all, he has to
continue to grow.
And when the will undoubtedly confront the of
our time We will do so because it is in our nature
not to wait for catastrophe to strike, not to sit idly by
and let the world fall to pieces. We do not take comfort in
the past deeds and we do not accept the notion that Esav
has the bomb.
And when all is said and done, and they condemn us in the
UN and in the public arena, those fair whether friends will
retire to their homes and mutter in an undertone Thank
God for Israel.
And one day, may it be soon, the children of Jacob will
build that very he envisioned so many years ago, and
we will gather, followed by every nation on this earth and
pray to the Almighty in the ,
" "
13