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ROSH HASHANA 5785
Rosh Hashanah 5785 - We are the Jewish People
Rabbi Andrew Shaw Chief Executive, Mizrachi UK
My family in Israel never expected to be spending Erev Rosh Hashanah in a bomb shelter
We were all shocked but not that surprised. Anyone with a functioning brain knows that Iran is the world sponsor of terror, and that Israel is engaged in a war between good and evil, which is a battle on behalf of the entire world.
Yet many useful idiots in the West think all we need do is smile sweetly and peace will break out across the Middle East.
A friend of mine shared something with me that happened to them this week, which really made me think about the state of the world at the moment and our role in it
Their colleague at work, who is Iranian, gave them a gift for Rosh Hashanah. They then said the following:
‘I just want you to know how grateful we are for what the Jewish people are doing for us. We lived under such terror in Iran and people here in the West have no concept about the way
people live in these countries So, we admire all the incredible work that Israel is doing Yes, to protect its own borders and citizens, but also for the wider world. Please God your Jewish New Year should bring the world what it needs.’
For someone who is not Jewish, to recognise the potency and the power of what the Jewish people is in the world is remarkable.
Look what this colleague is saying. Not what America are doing for us, not what the EU, not what the UN, not what the West, no, what the Jewish people are doing for us!
This reminded me of a quote from a genocidal speech by one of our most evil enemies, Hitler, whose vision of the obliteration of the Jews is the dream of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah etc
He said:
‘I free humanity from the shackles of the soul, from the degrading suffering caused by the false vision called conscience and ethics. The Jews have in icted two wounds on mankind –circumcision on its body and conscience on its soul. They are Jewish inventions. The war for the domination of the world is waged only between the two of us, between these two camps alone– the Nazis and the Jews Everything else is but deception ’
Once again, the war is not between the Nazis and the USA, the Nazis and the Allies, no, between the Nazis and the Jews, them and us. Then, we were not what we are today, a strong nation with one of the most powerful and advanced armies in the world. Then we were a tattered, shattered nation.
Yet Hitler understood that we, as the Jewish nation, were standing in the way of evil’s domination.
We were then We are now.
We must enter Rosh Hashanah this year with a new determination and a realisation that we have an enormous role to play, not just as the State of Israel, but as a global Am Yisrael. This last year has brought us together as a global nation like never before. However, we need to realise the potential we have as a nation to inspire the world by living lives of Torah.
Ten days ago, we read the last of the seven Haftorahs of comfort – from the end of Tisha B’Av to the eve of Rosh Hashanah. I remember when I read these verses last week that I
felt they were speaking to our current situation, and ten days on, even more so!
1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has shone upon you
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and a darkness across the kingdoms, and the Lord shall shine upon you, and His glory shall appear over you.
3 And nations shall go by your light and kings by the brilliance of your shine.
(Yeshaya 60:1-3)
We are living in a world of so much darkness, but the actions of the State of Israel to ght back against that darkness is creating a light for so many in the region who have only known darkness
It behoves us on Rosh Hashana to proclaim Hashem as Melech, but also to realise the responsibility we have as His nation in this world The values of the Torah; goodness, kindness as well as the observance of the mitzvot, these are our way, for those of us not on the front line in Israel, but here in the UK, to contribute to the wider battle.
This morning, we read a powerful selicha by Solomon Ibn Gabriol, written in the 11th century.
He begins talking about the wonderful days of old when we were a nation in Israel
Thou didst cause the people of Israel to inherit the delightful heritage, the pleasant portion; they were fastened to your glory with festoons of beauty
However, he then says:
Now strangers and evil-doers have driven them away, and they are straying in a land which belongs not to them… Robbers beset me and plundered me, oppressors forced me to exchange the clean for the unclean. Daily your servants are beaten and ogged, and the voice of your friend's blood cries out They have dug a pit to trap me, my soul faints and longs to seek your help, that thou may knock at my door and be my salvation.
I wanted to say to Solomon Ibn Gabriol My dear Solomon, I wish you could have been here last night, you would not have believed it. Our enemies launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at our homeland that we have returned to. Yes Solomon, we are back in the land of Israel. Yes Solomon, the hatred is still there, but with G-d’s help we repelled the missiles We are a transformed people and we should be so grateful to Hashem How blessed we are to live in this generation.
So may I wish all of you a Shana Tova, this last year has been lled with so much pain and anguish but has also reminded us of who we are as a nation and what we need to become.
May 5785 be the year that we defeat all our enemies, be the year that the Jewish people brings the world towards the geulah that is so desperately needed and is the year when nally our tears will vanish forever and Hashem will bring the geulah shleimah
Bimheira Beyamenu, Shana Tova
Read HaMizrachi for Rosh Hashana
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