A Meaningful Life Demands Sacrifice

By Rabbi Roy Feldman

My upbringing was steeped in Jewish tradition, but I was not fully observant growing up. It was during my freshman year at Columbia that I first encountered the profound commitment of observant Jews. That year, Yom Haatzmaut fell during midterms, a stressful time during which most students studied intensely. I campaigned vigorously among my friends to attend the Israel event at Hillel. I was crestfallen; despite my efforts, I was the only male student there who was not wearing a kippah. It was, by and large, the observant students on campus who felt that they had to show up for the campus Yom Haatzmaut event even if that meant foregoing studying that evening. They understood the sacrifice that had to be made

Yom Kippur is fundamentally about sacrifice We set aside our physical needseating, drinking, washing - to observe the day. Historically, Yom Kippur involved animal sacrifices, and our prayers continue to reflect this ancient practice, yearning for the return of such offerings.

Beyond Yom Kippur, sacrifice is a cornerstone of Judaism and our tradition. From the centrality of the binding of Isaac in the Rosh Hashanah service, to Sefer Vayikra, the book of sacrifices placed at the heart of the Torah, and the daily prayers modeled on these sacrifices, our heritage underscores the value of devotion to God. Our ancestors gave up the finest of their flocks and crops, illustrating the depth of their commitment.

As modern people, we might downplay the significance of religious sacrifice and the commitments it requires from us. To some extent, we have become accustomed to the idea that religion is there to cater to our needs rather than us devoting ourselves to God. But the centrality of sacrifices to the Torah and to Judaism emphasizes our tradition’ s priority of utter devotion to God — sometimes we must give things up.

By its nature, Halakha demands of us to make sacrifices; today’ s sacrifices are not burning animals at an altar but foregoing certain pleasures or desires. The Rav wrote in his essay Catharsis that “Halacha teaches that at every level of our total existential experience…the emotional, the intellectual, the moral-religious - one must engage in the dialectical movement by alternately advancing and retreating…Halacha encourages man to pursue greatness, vastness, to experiment daringly with his liberties… And again, Halacha will command man to halt, and to make an about-face…it teaches man how to conquer and how to lose, how to seize initiative and how to renounce, how to succeed, how to invite defeat, and how to resume the striving for victory.”

Third, whenever we give to something that is greater than ourselves we transcend ourselves by connecting with it. Think of the sacrifice Israelis make when they join the IDF. In the course of service one may be required to sacrifice health, limbs, or even life The chayalim are also postponing their productive lives, delaying their career path by several years. Serving in the IDF is a legally mandated sacrifice. Afterward, their commitment to Israel, their pride in it, their feeling of being connected to something bigger than themselves cannot be matched. And it lasts. Since October 7, countless adults have volunteered for extra reserve duty, serving in combat units and placing themselves at great risk. There is unfortunately great division in Israeli society, but what is clear is that Israelis on both sides are passionate about Israel and her soul. Both sides rally and demonstrate because they care so deeply about Israel; both sides wave the flag proudly because each person on each side is personally connected to Israel in a profound way.

Our lives cannot be meaningful and our people will not endure and our relationship with God cannot thrive and we cannot live together as a community without sacrifice. What I found inspiring about my peers who joined the Yom Ha’atzmaut event despite the impending midterms was that they knew that they were part of something greater, part of the Jewish people, and that meant that spending the evening studying had to be sacrificed. It was then I decided I must explore Orthodox Judaism further and I took some steps to do that. This was a community that took their Jewishness seriously. Not just Yom Ha’atzmaut but every day they ate in the kosher section and each week they observed Shabbat, they said “there is something that is more important to us than ourselves.” They knew they were, in Rabbi Jonathan Sack’ s words, “letters in the scroll.” “I am a Jew,” Rabbi Sacks wrote, “because only if I remain a Jew will the story of a hundred generations live on in me I continue their journey because, having come this far, I may not let it and them fail. I cannot be the missing letter in the scroll.”

The successful Jewish family is a family that makes sacrifices for the values it holds dear; Choosing to live thickly Jewish lives despite all the inconveniences, expenses and challenges. And in all three ways we have discussed here, sacrifice makes for a meaningful Jewish life. One: When we make sacrifices for God and Judaism, when we actually give things up for those values, we come to love God more and we come to love our Judaism more. And the members of our community will love each other more. Two: When we make those sacrifices, we reveal our true authentic selves, what our primary values are; not just our ephemeral wants, not just what gives us instant gratification but what we actually believe in perennially And three: By making these sacrifices, we connect instantly yet profoundly to God, Israel, and thousands of years of Jews before us Making sure we know what our values are and where we stand is more important now than it ever has been.

Let us resolve these High Holy Days to put our money where our mouth is: to identify what we believe in, and commit ourselves to those values not just in speech but in action.