This year, we will not blow the shofar on the first of Tishrei. This year, we will fast on a Friday. This year, we will make certain to finish our Purim Seudah early. And this year, we will not burn our chametz on erev Yom Tov. For the last six months we have worried and made jokes about the state of 2020, but now we are looking ahead and we realize that next year really will be different. Rosh Hashana the First Day is on Shabbat. The tenth of Teves is on a Friday, as is Purim. The first seder is Saturday night.
Each of these small calendar changes, when thought of on their own, seem odd and perhaps a bit of a nuisance. They may even make you uncomfortable. What is Rosh Hashana without shofar? How can we fast on a Friday? Indeed, how does one make a great Purim Seuda on a Friday? (Hint: Brunch, for those who, like me, love fancy breakfast foods!)
When we step back and look at the calendar as a whole, we realize that it is an amazing thing, especially in the wake of Covid. First the structure of our daily lives was “shaken,” and now, by the brilliant nature of our calendar, our Jewish sense of time has also been undermined.
Perhaps more significant is the fact that this double shake up affects all of Klal Yisrael, a fact that brings to mind the beginning of this week’s parsha, Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech: “You are all standing this day before the Lord your God, the leaders of your tribes, your elders and your officers, every man of Israel, your young children, your women, and your convert who is within your camp…in order to establish you this day as His people, and that He will be your God, as He spoke to you, and as He swore to your forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov” (Devarim 29:9-12). As we well know, the scare of the pandemic affected everyone, rich and poor, powerful and simple. So too, every Jew, no matter where they live, will have to take a moment and think as they prepare to observe 5781’s calendar.
When Moshe spoke those words to Bnei Yisrael, both he and they were facing the future, so to speak. They all knew that his death was imminent. For the Children of Israel, this meant that they needed to be resolved to be brave and move ahead. But while Moshe’s Hayom, this day, may have meant that specific day on the edge of the Promised Land, the recording of hayom in the Torah reminds us that every pasuk of the Torah is eternal. Every pasuk has meaning in every generation, and every day we have to look and understand its implications for our life.
This day, this hayom, now in 2020, the effects of Covid are making an impact on the lives of Jews in every country. All around us, people are speaking about living with a “new normal.” No one really knows what that means, so we do not think about what comes next. We look to the future and picture life as we would like it to be…crowded shuls filled with uplifting tefillos, sukkot filled with joyful guests, and our children attending school without rules and fear. And here we come to Rosh Hashana to look at our upcoming year and see one irregularity after another.
When the world first shut done and we all participated in the peculiar preparations for Pesach, I thought perhaps the time had come…that Moshiach was coming softly and somewhat gently (without a frightening precursor war of Gag Umagog). Pesach came and went, though, and we all settled into new routines. But the new routines kept changing, and we kept receiving different memos on policy, and we realized that the very idea of these expectations must be changed.
It’s Elul, and if there is one message I can concoct between this month of cheshbon hanefesh and teshuva and our lives in 2020 with a crazy 5781 calendar, it is that we Jews should recognize that change, that something different, is an opportunity. A new year is a new slate, a new chance to grow and reach our individual potential. As the world around us shouts that we must live our lives by a “new normal,” perhaps the message is not, after all, about masks and social distancing, but about ourselves. We must remember a different hayom (this day) from Parshat Nitzavim: “Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil” (Devarim 30:15). What stronger allusion to Rosh Hashana can their be?
Every Rosh Hashana is momentous. This year, however, with the world discomfited by a global pandemic and civil unrest, we have to seize the opportunity to bring out our holy light and shine.
How do we do so? It’s a great question, and one that our nation has struggled with throughout the generations. Perhaps, for right now, we need to remember the repeated words of Parshat Vayelech: “Chazka v’emetzBe strong and courageous!” Don’t take Covid-19 lightly but contemplate the potential messages of this modern-day plague and the beginning of strange new year.
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