The back to school ads made me smile. I particularly like the ad that uses the sound clip from Free to Be You and Me, which I remember fondly from my youth. The song suggests that every person is valued for being who they are and that they can succeed as individuals. Even better is the one that uses the countdown to New Year’s and then kids excitedly run into the school building ready for the new academic year. These are much better than the ad a few years ago that used the Christmas song, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” with parents gleefully shopping for school supplies and the kids dragging behind the cart.
I was thinking about this as I was shopping for school supplies—those for my daughter who is heading back to college and those for the religious school I run in Andover. Buying school supplies is a chance to reflect and measure the growth year over year. We are both in different places than we were last year. She goes back to school as a confident, maturing junior. I am now a rabbi running a school of my own. It’s been a good year—not without its bumps, a serious case of mono and pneumonia for her; the challenges of finishing up school while working and changing jobs for me.
I like this process of buying school supplies—new crayons, markers, pens, pencils, glue sticks, fresh paper waiting to be filled with new thoughts. Just the right ones for each student where they are developmentally. This new start is always exciting. It is as though I have been given a new chance with a new teacher who doesn’t yet know my strengths and weaknesses. There are no red marks on any of my homework assignments. Unfortunately this excitement is not true for all students. I wish I could capture my enthusiasm and help students love school and to become life long learners.
Buying new school supplies works for the preparation we do for Rosh Hashanah, the new Jewish year which begins this year Wednesday night, September 8. Jews spend the weeks before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur being introspective, thinking about the past year. We examine the things that we liked and the things that we didn’t do as well. We try to make amends with the people that we might have hurt. We promise to try not to make the same mistakes again. This can be hard work. This process is called “teshuvah” in Hebrew. Frequently translated as repentance it carries with it the sense of turning back around and reminds me of the Shaker hymn, “Tis a Gift to be simple”
‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain’d,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
Dr. Louis Newman in his new book, Repentance The Meaning and Practice of Teshuvah describes the process this way, “Like water, teshuvah is both destructive and creative. It dissolves the person you were but simultaneously provides the moisture you need to grow anew. It erodes the hard edges of your wilfulness but also refreshens your spirit. It can turn the tallest barriers of moral blindness into rubble while it also gently nourishes the hidden seeds of hope buried deep in your soul. Teshuvah, like water, has the power both to wash away past sin and to shower you with the blessing of a new future, if only you trust it and allow yourself to be carried along in its current.”
It is that hope in the future that I like. Like the school supplies, Rosh Hashanah offers us a clean slate. While hard work, what Newman doesn’t say is that we are not alone in the process. God is a forgiving God who encourages us not to hold onto our own grudges. God is with us in this process every step of the way. Many people think that the focus of the holiday is on the negatives and they don’t like the holiday. I think that one of the things God wants is for us to focus on the positive, all the things we have done right. Sometimes we are our own worst critics. Sometimes it is detrimental to our own spiritual and psychological well-being. That is not what this holiday or God demands. If God can forgive us, can we find a way to forgive ourselves?
Recently the Boston Globe ran a column about Camp Harbor VIew. It served 800 kids this summer, providing them with hope. The striking thing about the article was this line. “We try to shower them with positive attention. They get labeled as the bad kid, and everyone treats them as that, then they try to fulfill the role.’’ The director said that the counselors ignore the bad and dwell on what the campers do right. I hope this is what all teachers do. I think this is precisely what the Jewish holidays with their introspection are asking us to do. Take realistic stock of where we are. Recognize the bad but accentuate the positive.
As we enter the new year, I pray that we do the same, we accentuate the positive, forgive others who may have hurt us with the little hurts of day-to-day living and forgive ourselves for not living up to our own expectations. Then I think we will be ready, to start the new school year with our fresh notebooks and to begin the new Jewish year with the hope that a “clean slate” brings. May it be for each of us a year of growth, new beginnings, a clean slate and a new marker.
This sermon appeared in the Chelmsford Independent on September 2, 2010.