Rabbi Naomi Goldman is Rabbi of Kol Chai: Hatch End Reform Jewish Community. This sermon was delivered at Kol Chai on Erev Rosh Hashanah.
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Rosh Hashanah goes by many different names – Yom Teruah – day of blowing the shofar; Yom HaDin – day of judgement; Yom Harat Ha’Olam – the birthday of the world – and Yom HaZikaron – day of Remembering. Yom HaZikaron – Day of Remembering is one of its oldest names – the name Rosh Hashanah – head of the year – isn’t in the Bible. That came later. But the Torah does mention a day called Yom HaZikaron that takes place 10 days before Yom Kippur. It’s a day of remembrance both for us and for God. God is supposed to remember us. And we are also called to remember. What is it that are we supposed to remember?
Well it’s the start of the new year – the Jewish New Year’s Eve – so it’s an opportunity to look back over the past year and the months that have gone by. And it’s been quite a traumatic twelve months for the Jewish people. We began with the death of two Jews at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur. We continued with the massacre at Bondi Beach during Chanukah. We had firebomb attacks at synagogues in Finchley and Kenton and an attack on two ambulances in Golders Green. And constant micro-aggressions at work and at schools means that as a community we enter this new year more defensive and more worn down than we have been for some time. And none of this is helped by the rise in Jewish terrorism on the West Bank or the lack of any political solution for those still living among rubble in Gaza. And of course we remember how all this started on 7 October 2023. Because as Jews we never forget.
Remembering is crucial in Judaism – we are a people built on memory. We tell our origin story at Pesach. Some of us fast in the summer to remember the destruction of the Temple two and a half thousand years ago. And of course we remember the Holocaust – at Yom HaShoah; on National Holocaust Memorial Day; and at Yizkor on Yom Kippur. Why is it so important to remember? I think instinctively we feel we need to honour those who have gone before us. We light candles for our loved ones every year – we honour them at the end of every service. And so when bigger disasters occur – be it October 7th or Auschwitz – it feels important to do the same. I think that’s right.
But there is a danger that if we just remember; without considering why we are remembering – that we can end up stuck in a place where the past is always happening now; where we are always the victim and we never move on to the next step – we never work out how we’re going to make things better.
Elie Wiesel – Auschwitz survivor and author of some of the most searing narratives about the Holocaust said:
“We remember Auschwitz and all that it symbolizes because we believe that, in spite of the past and its horrors, the world is worthy of salvation; and salvation, like redemption, can be found only in memory.”
So it is important to remember – but it is important when we’re remembering the dark past to consider what we can do to change the future.
Because memory matters. It always has. In the story of the Exodus the goal for the newly liberated Israelites was to become like God – we are made BeTzelem Elohim in the image of God – rather than like Pharaoh who had enslaved them. So what they needed to learn from their suffering was kindness rather than indifference. Be kind to the stranger because you were once strangers in the land of Egypt – that’s the core take-away from that story.
But that doesn’t happen automatically. It wasn’t the only thing they could have learned. They could have set up their own mini-Egypt. We are who we are because of how we choose to let our memories affect us. How do we shape our narrative? What bits of our story do we choose to tell?
Because memory can be redemptive but it can also be toxic. One conclusion could be that since we were victims once we are always and everywhere victims. And therefore we can do no wrong. But the Torah ties the memory of slavery to an ethical responsibility – you were strangers and you know what it was like – so don’t oppress anyone else. By telling us to love the stranger the Torah attempts to direct our communal memory into the service of love and justice.
And I think this isn’t just about the big issues. I think this Day of Remembrance – this Yom HaZikaron – calls on us in a more personal way too. When we remember – we bring all our experiences and knowledge into an integrated whole. It’s about integrity. And to live with integrity is one of life’s greatest challenges. We all live such scattered lives. It’s so easy to lose ourselves in the fragmentation of daily life. And what we are doing here tonight is bringing our fragments together. We come to hear the shofar on Rosh Hashanah and it’s meant to wake us up – to rouse us from the unconscious auto-pilot of daily living.
It prompts us to ask ourselves – when I am whole – when I am at one with myself – who am I? What parts of myself have I closed down? What parts of myself have I allowed to become indifferent to what is going on in the world? Can we be honest about ourselves as we begin a new year and make promises to do better – to be better this year?
Remembering works in two ways on Rosh Hashanah. We look back to see how we’ve done. But the idea is that God also looks back and remembers what we’ve done – not just our mistakes but also our good intentions. And God – just like us – also remembers our ancestors who have gathered at Rosh Hashanah for thousands of years and asked for forgiveness and listened to the shofar. Today is the day that we remember to wake up – to remember what matters most in our lives. Perhaps we need to shed old memories that no longer serve us. Perhaps we need to remember that still small voice inside us that tells us whether we are doing right or wrong.
Here at Kol Chai we can look back and name the times we have remembered our responsibilities this year – to the planet – achieving Gold at the Eco-Judaism awards; to our fellow human beings – setting up the Bereavement Café – and to the stranger who lives among us – setting up a team to teach English to asylum-seekers.
Tomorrow we will be called by the sound of the shofar to wake up and be alive to what we have done and what we have not done. To the times we have been indifferent and the times when we have cared passionately as individuals and a community and done something to make the world a better place. Tonight we remember the good and the bad of the year that’s gone and we remember our obligation to make the world a better place in the coming year. Ken yehi ratzon. Shana Tovah.