Today is Pregnant with Eternity: The Dread and the Possibility of the New Year – Jewschool
Posted By admin on September 19, 2020
The Torah gives just one unique commandment for Rosh HaShanah, to hear the sound of the Shofar, producing that raw, emotionally complex, array of sounds that evoke:
How do we respond to these cries? In the liturgy, our response to the shofar all three times in the Musaf (Additional) service is the words, Hayom Harat Olam. This strange phrase is usually translated, Today the world came into being or Today is the conception of the world, or the like. Hayom = today. Harah = to conceive. Olam = world. Sometimes translations even elide pregnancy and birth, rendering it, Today is the birthday of the world. In this understanding, the phrase expresses the tradition that the world was created on Rosh HaShanah (Talmud, Rosh HaShanah 27a), which appears elsewhere in the classical liturgy: This is the day, the beginning of Your creation, a memorial of the first day (introduction to the section of Remembrances/Zikhronot in Musaf). The shofar, then, arouses our sense of possibility. Today is the beginning, when the unlikeliest of miracles, life itself, came into being. We hint at this by reading of the births of Isaac and Samuel to previously barren mothers, Sarah and Hannah, in the Torah and Haftarah readings for the first day.
That is a strong meaning of Rosh Hashanah, but I dont think it can be exactly what Hayom Harat Olam means. First of all, that understanding conflates pregnancy and birth. Harah means pregnant. Second, while olam comes to refer to the world ie, total space in later Jewish literature, in the Bible, it means eternity ie, total time. Third, even if it meant the world, it would need a definite article and should be Hayom harat ha-olam. It should be translated not as today is the conception of the world, but, rather, today is pregnant with eternity, or, perhaps, today is infinitely pregnant. The cries and anguish, the fear, the loss, the danger they, themselves are pregnant with eternal possibility and vitality.
But this understanding has a cloud over it. Harat Olam is a Biblical quote, with a dark contextual meaning. Lets set the scene: The prophet Jeremiah, fresh off a traumatic beating and imprisonment by the corrupt and despotic priest Pashhur, who wanted none of Jeremiahs incessant, rabble-rousing against corruption and injustice, Jeremiah breaks down. He cant take it anymore, the life of the dissident, the activist, the prophet:
I have become a laughingstock all day; everyone mocks me.
Every time I speak, I cry out; violence and plunder, I call out.
For the word of YHWH causes me disgrace and contempt all day (Hayom) (Jeremiah 20:7-8).
The pain and trauma visited in this world upon courageous and righteous opponents of tyranny leads the prophet to a death-wish:
Cursed is the day (Hayom) when I was born;
a day on which my mother bore me should not be blessed.
Cursed is the man who brought my father the news, saying,
a baby boy was born to you!, delighting him with such delight.
Let that man be like the cities which YHWH overturned remorselessly;
Let him hear cries in the morning and wails (teruah) at noon.
Because he did not kill me within the womb,
So that my mother would be my grave, and her womb eternally pregnant (harat olam) (Jeremiah 20:14-17).
Hayom harat olam, Today is eternally pregnant, for Jeremiah, is the dark wish of a beaten, rejected, losing fighter-for-justice never to have been born. These scary thoughts, this despair, are well-known to many people broken by state violence and popular rejection, but who know that that violence is evil and cant help seeing things as they are. Its the feeling of hearing every cry, every teruah (the name for the short, staccato shofar blasts) exclusively as mourning.
The liturgy challenges us to recognize that despair in us, to hold it, to know it, and to work through it. Even in Jeremiahs despair, he couldnt quite go all the way with his death-wish. He uses death language, but then imagines his mother eternally pregnant with him. This image is horrific for those who have had a fetus die in their womb and had to deliver it, but it also winds back to the image of pregnancy itself: maybe this danger and this pain are pangs of life and possibility. The liturgy responds to this quote defiantly: Hayom yaamid bemishpat kol yetzurei olamim Today [God] will make all creatures from eternity stand in judgment. This, too, is a Biblical allusion, to Proverbs 29:4: By justice a king makes the earth stand. A life of justice work, which is demanded of us, can lead us into immense pain, fear, and brokenness; it can feel like death, but it is, in fact, what enables the earth to exist. It is life. Being judged is a translation of Gods sustaining the earth with justice. Our deeds matter. Our lives are important. How do we stand in judgment? Whether as children or as servants. If as children, have compassion on us, as a father has compassion for children. This, too, alludes to Jeremiahs language and guides it into new life. The Hebrew word for compassion is rahamim, from rehem, which means womb: if we are Your children, womb us, like a father wombs children. This gender-bending turn of phrase sets the womb as a universal model for human and divine possibility. When we address God as HaRahaman, it means God is The Compassionate One, but it really means that God is The Wombing One. To treat someone with compassion is to bring them in for warm protection and nourishment, to acknowledge that none of us is ever fully ready for life, that we all need some more time. We are always alive in justice/judgment at this moment and we are all always still in the womb, seen for our eternal potential.
Post-menopausal Sarah, married to a sexually non-performing spouse, gave birth; can we find vitality in the parts of ourselves that feel most hopeless? Can we birth life out of the doom and death of the collapsing planet and murderous regimes? Hannah, the barren outcast, scorned by the religious establishment, which mistakes her sincere, vulnerable prayer for drunken blathering in violation of Temple decorum, gives birth and the Rabbis in the Talmud (Berakhot 31a-b), stylize her prayer as the legal paradigm. To pray according to halakhah (Jewish law), we must bring out into the open our inner Hannah, our vulnerable, heartbroken, and rejected self, despite the fear. In hearing the cries of the shofar, we have to express our inner Jeremiah, to work through our despair to reach the nourished place of rebirth and possibility, eternally.
May you have a sweet new year, pregnant with eternity a year of audacious bravery and honest confrontation with danger, of attuning our ears to shrill cries everywhere and awakening from our sleepwalking, a year of removing malicious government from the land, a year of dangerous prayer, resilient midwifery, and wombing compassion.
A version of this devar torah was first written for the Avodah Service Corps members.
Read the original here:
Today is Pregnant with Eternity: The Dread and the Possibility of the New Year - Jewschool
- I resisted the call to include non-male voices every time I taught Torah. Then I tried it. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - January 4th, 2021
- Law professor Ray Bernstein, 56, dies in bike accident - The Jewish News of Northern California - January 4th, 2021
- Let's head into the new year in a new frame of mind - The Jewish News of Northern California - January 4th, 2021
- The Purpose Of Chassidus In The Alter Rebbe's Own Words - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - January 4th, 2021
- Opinion/Keep the Faith: Hanukkah reminds us of light and hope, even in dark times - Worcester Telegram - December 19th, 2020
- Opinion: The true meaning of Hanukkah (hint, it's not about joy) - The Detroit News - December 19th, 2020
- Is the Temple Menorah Hidden in the Vatican? - Questions & Answers - Chabad.org - December 19th, 2020
- Circumcision, Berzerkeley, and the Power of Five Minutes - Chabad.org - December 19th, 2020
- He Flew in From London for Reasons He'd Never Imagined - Chabad.org - December 19th, 2020
- Rabbis and Jewish ethicists hail vaccine for COVID-19, encourage its use - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix - December 19th, 2020
- Why it's kosher to go a little wild with the Hanukkah swag - Los Angeles Times - December 16th, 2020
- Increasing the Light of Allyship This Hanukkah - Jewish Journal - December 16th, 2020
- Why it's kosher to bring a little zing to the Hanukkah celebration - Bangor Daily News - December 16th, 2020
- Is the Menorah Hidden in the Vatican? - Chabad.org - December 16th, 2020
- Community mourns the passing of former CJC president Goldie Hershon - The Suburban Newspaper - December 16th, 2020
- Perseverence Vs. Perfection - An Essay on Vayigash - Kabbalah, Chassidism and Jewish Mysticism - Chabad.org - December 16th, 2020
- The New Generation of LGBTQ Jews and Tattoos - jewishboston.com - December 16th, 2020
- Men have dominated Jewish texts for most of history. These women are trying to change that. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - December 11th, 2020
- I knew Hanukkah celebrated defeating the Greeks. Then I moved to Athens and the story got complicated. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - December 11th, 2020
- What are good vegetarian dishes to have on Shabbat? - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - December 11th, 2020
- Five Brave Men and One Brave Woman - Judah the Maccabee and his siblings - Chabad.org - December 11th, 2020
- Hanukkah in Fall River Zooming live courtesy of Temple Beth El - Fall River Herald News - December 11th, 2020
- You Take Christmas, I'll Take Hanukkah | Michael Harvey | The Blogs - The Times of Israel - December 11th, 2020
- Bursting the bubble: Even the Rabbis perpetuated a "hoax!" - jewishpresspinellas - December 11th, 2020
- All up in lights - The River Reporter - December 11th, 2020
- Hanukkah This year and next - Forward - December 11th, 2020
- Dozens of Impressive Siyumim for Volume 5 of the Mishnah Berurah, In the Second Cycle of the Daf Hayomi in Halachah Were Held - Yeshiva World News - December 11th, 2020
- To Be A Wise Guy (Part I) - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - December 11th, 2020
- What most Jews don't realise about festival with more gifts than Christmas - The Age - December 11th, 2020
- Jewish digital library gets better and now were in it - The Jewish Standard - November 19th, 2020
- Interfaith: Even when we disagree, we should respect others - VC Star - November 19th, 2020
- Ask a busy person and you'll get the job done - The Jewish Star - November 19th, 2020
- Ibogaine Clinic Treats Suboxone Addiction and Is Saving Lives - Influencive - November 19th, 2020
- Parshat Chayei Sarah and the Wisdom of Old Age - Algemeiner - November 19th, 2020
- Synonyms in the Hebrew Language Boys & Girls (Part 1 of 2) - The Jewish Voice - November 19th, 2020
- Parashat Toldot: Opening the Conversation - My Jewish Learning - November 19th, 2020
- Boys And Girls (Part I) - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - November 19th, 2020
- Is Israel being SMART with COVID-19? | Mendel Weinberger - The Times of Israel - November 19th, 2020
- Ruth Calderon to be WZO president - The Jerusalem Post - October 30th, 2020
- Why are the Jews called the people of the Book? - The Jerusalem Post - October 30th, 2020
- Straight rabbis need to offer LGBTQ Jews so much more than just wedding ceremonies - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - October 30th, 2020
- Elijah the Prophet - My Jewish Learning - October 30th, 2020
- Christians have struggled to understand Judaism on its own terms - The Christian Century - October 30th, 2020
- Why Orthodox Jews believe studying Torah protects from COVID-19 - Haaretz.com - October 30th, 2020
- The Plight of MENA Religious Minorities: A War for Civilization? - The Media Line - October 30th, 2020
- Straight rabbis need to offer LGBTQ Jews more than just wedding ceremonie - The Jerusalem Post - October 30th, 2020
- Mikvah off the Coast of Tokyo - First-Person Stories - Chabad.org - October 30th, 2020
- Finally, a podcast that addresses our crisis of meaning - Big Think - October 30th, 2020
- Haredim add to COVID-19 complications in Israel - Cleveland Jewish News - October 30th, 2020
- Amy Coney Barrett needs a Talmudic view of the Constitution J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - October 28th, 2020
- Opinion | What the Talmud can teach Amy Coney Barrett about 'Originalism' - Forward - October 28th, 2020
- A Jewish Guide to Dealing With Demons - jewishboston.com - October 28th, 2020
- The Vibe of the Tribe Podcast: Monsters and Demons in Jewish Folklore - jewishboston.com - October 28th, 2020
- In praise of the yeshiva and yet something crucial is missing - Forward - October 28th, 2020
- A 500-Year-Old Rif - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - October 28th, 2020
- I grew up in Orthodox Brooklyn. We must apply the same COVID-19 standards for all and Jews must choose life. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - October 28th, 2020
- Unity's no goal when not everyone's the same - The Jewish Star - October 28th, 2020
- Prop 14: Don't Stand Idly By - Jewish Journal - October 28th, 2020
- Choose life! That's the Jewish way, and it hasn't changed - The Times of Israel - October 28th, 2020
- Learn how to respond to gossip - The Altamont Enterprise - October 28th, 2020
- The Jewish people have much to thank President Trump for - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - October 28th, 2020
- Judaism can provide the answer to our current crisis of leadership - The Jerusalem Post - October 28th, 2020
- Lubavitch Announces Emissary to the United Arab Emirates - Chabad.org - October 28th, 2020
- 'Bound in the Bond of Life' Anthology Published on Two-Year Commemoration of Massacre - Jewish Exponent - October 28th, 2020
- What Rabbi And Rebbetzin Kramer Want You To Know About Their Daughter Gitty - Yeshiva World News - October 28th, 2020
- A Talmudic duel with Death comes to life in mosaic form in new book - Forward - October 16th, 2020
- Why Is the Torah Read at Shabbat Minchah? - Chabad.org - October 16th, 2020
- Why Do Some Letters in the Torah Have 'Crowns'? - Chabad.org - October 16th, 2020
- 7 Facts About the Traveler's Prayer Every Jew Should Know - Prayer - Chabad.org - October 16th, 2020
- Prop. 18 is vital for teens who want and deserve to vote - The Jewish News of Northern California - October 16th, 2020
- Apostolic asides: 29 brief insights from footnotes Latter-day Saint leaders added to conference talks - East Idaho News - October 16th, 2020
- Amy Coney Barrett may threaten access to IVF, and Jewish fertility advocates are worried - Forward - October 16th, 2020
- Sedra of the Week: Shemini Atzeret | Jewish News - Jewish News - October 10th, 2020
- The Day We Stop in the Name of Love - Jewish Exponent - October 10th, 2020
- JUF News | Less-than-perfect? Perfectly fine: The lesson of the three-walled sukkah - Jewish United Fund - October 8th, 2020
- Simhat Torah in the corona age - The Jerusalem Post - October 8th, 2020
- Dont Forsake Family Traditions - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - October 8th, 2020
- Jewish tradition supports expanding the Supreme Court - Forward - October 8th, 2020
- Shmini Azeret and Simchat Torah - The Jewish Voice - October 8th, 2020
- My shul did everything right and the government still shut us down. Theyre right. - Forward - October 8th, 2020
Comments