What is our hope as we enter the new year?
Certainly, there is much to weigh us down. The world is full of ominous news. That there is no shofar on the first day of Rosh Hashanah is enough to frighten anyone.
So, my friends, I am going to say that the darkness itself is our hope. This is how the Torah describes Har Sinai: “On the third day … there was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud on the mountain. The sound of the shofar was very powerful and the entire people … shuddered.” (Shemos 19:16ff) That is where we are today. We shudder in the darkness.
Where is the hope?
The darkness is the hope.
Every yeshuah comes at the darkest moment. Our redemption from Mitzraim came at mem-tes Shaarei tumah, the forty-ninth level of impurity, when our ancestors were a hairsbreadth from losing their holy identity and melding into the surrounding nation of Mitzraim. In personal terms, my own life turned around at the bottom of the abyss at the age of twenty-three. I suddenly realized that Hashem had to exist and that saved me.
When someone is desperate, he will either succumb, G-d forbid, or he will reach upward to Hashem to save him. And, at that moment, Hashem is ready to receive him, because Hashem sees how broken he is. As Dovid ha Melech writes, “[Hashem] You reduce man to pulp and [then] You say, ‘Repent oh sons of man….’” (Tehillim 90)
So, my friends, we should rejoice in the darkness. It is a sign that Hashem is about to save us. As Chazal say, “[Moshiach] will not come until the entire kingdom converts to heresy.” (Sanhedrin 97a)
Two Haftaras are read on Rosh Hashanah. They bear a striking similarity, for each contains the bitter tears of a mother for her children. On the first day we read the soul-wrenching story of Chana, the mother of Shmuel ha Novi. She was drowning in bitterness because she had no children. Because her suffering was so profound, Hashem answered her by giving her a son who brought redemption to the entire world. Shmuel ha Novi spoke in the Name of Hashem, saved Israel and anointed Dovid as our eternal king.
The second Haftara also contains the story of a heroic mother of Israel, Rachel Imeinu, whose tears are heard in Shomayim. Who can forget these words! “A voice was heard on high – wailing, bitter weeping – Rachel weeps for her children. She refuses to be comforted …. So said Hashem: restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears. There is reward for your accomplishment – the word of Hashem – and [your children] shall return from the enemy’s land!”
My dear friends, these haftaras teach us what we have to know. They teach us that tears of deep emotion reach the Throne of the Master of the Universe! They teach us that we can change decrees and alter history. They teach us that, when the darkness seems deepest, at that precise moment we can open the curtains and let in the light.
Hashem Himself testifies: “I have heard Ephraim moaning [and saying…] ‘I have accepted chastisement! For, after repenting, I regretted …. I slapped my thigh in anguish; I was ashamed and humiliated ….” to which Hashem answers, “I will surely take pity on him!”
It does not matter that our enemies are stronger than we are. All that matters is that we do teshuva and cry with bitter tears over our estrangement from our Father in Heaven. Then, “the One Who scattered Israel … shall gather them in and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock. For Hashem will have redeemed Yaakov and delivered him from a power mightier than he. They shall come and sing joyously on the height of Tzion…. I will transform their mourning into joy and I shall comfort them and gladden them in place of their grief.”
This we can accomplish with our tears of repentance!
May we see it soon in our days!
GLOSSARY
Chazal: the Rabbis of the Mishna and Talmud
Dovid ha Melech: King David
Har Sinai: Mount Sinai
Mitzraim: Ancient Egypt
Rachel Imeinu: Our Mother Rachel
Shomayim: Heaven
Yeshua: Redemption
