From the Rabbi’s Desk

Rabbi Manes Kogan

Devar Torah for the First Day of Rosh Hashanah

5764

As you know this past year has been a difficult one for the State of Israel. In addition to the suicide bombers, the increasing feeling of insecurity and the loss of hope after the three-month truce was declared officially dead, the Israeli economy kept suffering more and more from the understandable lack of tourism, one of Israeli main revenue sources.

Having that in mind, Israelis and Israeli’s supporters came along with an idea, which has the potential to partially help alleviate the increasingly difficult circumstances of Israel’s economy. The idea was to create the possibility for the Jewish and non Jewish population outside Israel to purchase Israeli goodies. This idea was translated in a variety of websites dedicated to sell exclusively Israeli products (snacks, music, t-shirts, videos, books, etc.).

The idea has its merit, so I kept my eyes opened to the possibility of buying Israeli goodies online as soon as the demand (my demand) matched the offer (advertised in one of the many Israeli websites).

Finally, less than three weeks ago, I came across a catalog, which got my attention: www.israeliwishes.com.

I have been receiving many similar catalogs in the mail, but this one seemed to have a few items I was interested in: Turkish coffee, honey cookies, Bazooka gum, Israeli spices and a movie I wanted to add to my small movie collection.

I called the 1-800 - number and with my credit card available, I was ready to place my order.

-Israeli Wishes, How may I help you? – A friendly voice, which I attributed to a young lady, responded on the other side of the line.

-Hi, I would like to place an order- was my response.

-Go ahead, the young lady continued.

Since I have the catalogue in front of me, I went ahead and listed the items I wanted to purchase.

-Is there anything else you would like to add to your order?

-Not right now, thank you, – I said.

So the young lady took note of my name, my credit card number and expiration day.

-What is your phone number? She asked

-540-344-2660 - I said

-Are you in Roanoke? - She asked surprised.

-Yes, I said.

-We are in Roanoke too, she exclaimed even more surprised. The headquarters and the storehouse of www.israeliwishes.com are in Roanoke, in Boones Mill, to be more precisely.

The fortuitous coincidence not only saved me seven dollars of shipping (since Meirav Morse, the young Israeli owner of www.israeliwishes.com delivered my order personally to Beth Israel last week), but enriched me with a profound insight I would like to share with you.

In my mind I was dialing a 1-800 – number, in an anonymous far away place, and sure enough, the place I was trying to reach was literally around the corner.

Has it happened to you before? Has it happened to you that you were looking for someone or something, for a long time, in far away places, only to realize that it was nearby? Has it happened to you that you were looking for some meaning outside of you, only to realize that you had it always within you, inside of you?

The motif is not a new one.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, may his memory be for a blessing, tells the following story:

Once a Jewish inhabitant of Austria saw in his dream that under a bridge in the city of Vienna a valuable treasure lay buried. He journeyed there, stood on the bridge and wondered what to do, as it was impossible to search by day in case people saw him searching and realized that there was something going on.

By the by, a soldier crossed the bridge, saw the Jew standing and wondering, and asked him: 'What are you doing here and what are you looking for?'

The Jew thought about it, and told his secret to the soldier, asking him to help him search for the treasure so that they might share it 50/50 when they found it.

But the soldier replied: 'I feel sorry for you, you crazy dreamer! I also dreamed that a valuable treasure lay buried in the cellar of such and such a Jew in such and such a town, but am I going to set off on a journey there?!'

The name of the Jew was this man's name, and the town he had named was his home town!

Whereupon the Jew took a wagon hitched to two sturdy horses and hastened to journey to his town, went down to his cellar, and there discovered the treasure.

At the sight of it, the Jew declared:

'Now this mystery has been revealed to me. The treasure had always lain buried in my house, but I had to leave my town and wander far, far away to Vienna in order there to discover it in my house.'

 

The metaphor of the story seems clear: all of us have treasures in our home, in our hearts, in our own places. The treasures are –however- buried deep inside, hidden from our sight, concealed from our view.

The metaphor goes further: as the dreamer of Rabbi Nachman’s story, we dream about treasures, and we imagine that in far away places, physical or spiritual places, lies the answer to our deepest questions...

If only I could go to Vienna and get my hands on the treasure… If only I could find the love of my life… If only I could find get the job I am looking for… If only I could find the single religious experience, the one which will bring me back, and will give meaning to my life…

And as in the story, we walk and drive, and fly through life looking for the treasure, and as in the story we find obstacles and more obstacles, and we just believe that if only the guard will let us share the treasure with him, everything will be fine…

However, unlike the story, we refuse to come back home to look for the treasure.

It is too obvious, we tell ourselves, it is too easy… You mean that www.israeliwishes.com, the website that everybody in the USA is ordering from, is in Roanoke, VA? Impossible! Just around the corner? For the last two years? How was it that I didn’t know?

Are you trying to tell me that I have a treasure buried under my cellar and that there is no treasure in Vienna? Do you mean I need to go back? But it is so difficult to go back! It implies that I need to admit that I was looking in the wrong place, for all these years…

Going back home…Sounds so simple, but it is so difficult…You see, I borrowed money to come to Vienna, I invested a lot of time, a lot of effort… Even my friends and my family expect me to come home with something, not empty handed…Maybe I should make up a fake treasure, that will be easier than admitting my failure…But still, it may be under my cellar, in my own home…

www.israeliwishes.com is in Roanoke, and it was always in Roanoke, but in order to find out that it was around the corner, I needed to make the phone call.

The treasure was always under the cellar, but to find out such revealing truth, the hero of our story needed to travel to Vienna.

The most deep, yet simple, message of our story, is that the only way to find the treasure is to begin a long journey back, a journey to a very familiar, yet almost unknown, place.

Journeying back is called –in Hebrew- Teshuvah. Teshuvah, usually translated as repentance, means actually returning, coming back home…

 

As we read every year in the Selichot Service:

"Now is the time for turning. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red and orange. The birds are beginning to turn and are heading once more toward the South. The animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the winter. For leaves, birds, and animals, turning comes instinctively. But for us turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking with old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong; and this is never easy. It means losing face; it means starting all over again; and this is always painful. It means saying: I am sorry. It means recognizing that we have the ability to change. These things are terribly hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways. Lord, help us to turn—from callousness to sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose, from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to faith. Turn us around, 0 Lord, and bring us back toward You. Revive our lives, as at the beginning. And turn us toward each other. Lord, for in isolation there is no life"

For some of us, the nearby treasure is within our hearts, for others it is in our own families, in the sacredness of our home, or in the company of loyal friends.

For those among us, who journeyed outside Jewish faith looking for spiritual answers to give meaning to our lives, the answer may lie around the corner, in your own Synagogue, with your own Rabbi, or outside Roanoke, in the multiple opportunities for Torah study online, or through Torah tapes, or on the phone.

Rosh Hashanah is time to come back, before the doors close behind us. The answer we are looking for, maybe just around the corner, or under our cellar...

"Eternal God, We speak of repentance, and yet are slow to change. But now we turn to You with the prayer that Your love may abide with us always, turning our hearts to Your ways, our feet to Your paths. Hope is food and drink to us; hope sustains us. And so we pray: Do not turn us away empty-handed from Your presence. End our darkness with Your light and turn our passions to Your purpose. Help us. Lord, in this hour of turning, to make real in our lives the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts"

And may God bless every one of you and your families with health, and joy, with peace of spirit and sustenance, with a good and sweet year.