 
Shabbat Shalom: Rosh Hashana - Parshat Nitzavim
Deut. 29:9-30:20
By Shlomo Riskin
Efrat,
Israel
–Are we Jews superstitious, lured by magic spells and incantations,
prone to evoking the power of the symbolic word? Nonsense, one would answer.
Superstition goes against the very essence of our religion. And yet there
are those who might point an accusing finger to the pageantry involved on
the night of Rosh Hashana: the meal begins in a sea of colorful fruits and
vegetables that delight the taste buds, but in reality we are eating special
foods whose names, taste and/or texture conjure positive prayers for a good
year. The most popular is the apple dipped in honey, which occasions our
wish for a good and sweet New Year; pomegranates, when we pray for a year of
merits as numerous as the pomegranates seeds; etc. And there are even some
more modern, even humorous, examples, like dates for the unmarried around
the tables, and a mixture of raisins and celery for a “raise in da selery.”
All of this leads our great sages to declare “that on Rosh HaShanah, symbols
take on a practical reality,” “simana milta hee.” Certainly this
sounds a bit superstitious.
The Talmud (B.T. Kritut 5b) gives three examples which only
seem to aggravate the superstitious element:
1
“Rav Ami says, one who wishes to know whether he
will live out the year ought bring a candle into a house which is completely
sealed off from any wind, and light that candle between Rosh HaShanah and
Yom Kippur. If the light doesn’t go out, we will know that he will live out
the year.”
2
“And one who wishes to know if the business venture
he wishes to get involved in will succeed or not, let him raise a hen. If
she grows big and fat, we know that his venture will succeed.”
3
“And for one about to go on a journey who wishes to
know if he will come back safely, let him enter a darkened house and remain
there. If he sees that his shadow has a shadow, we know that he shall return
home safely. But if he doesn’t see the shadow, it’s no proof that he won’t
return home safely; perhaps his disappointment and fear in not seeing a
shadow of the shadow was responsible for a depression which led to his bad
luck.”
Now if you think therefore that Rosh Hashanah is a legitimate time
to allow superstitions to run rampant on the basis of the texts I have just
cited, please remember that Rosh HaShanah is also the first day of the Ten
Days of Repentance, when every Jew must attempt to be a religiously
punctilious as possible. And superstition is halakhically forbidden!
Maimonides rules, in his Laws of Idolatry 12,4 (taken from B.T. Sanhedrin
65,66).
“It is forbidden to engage in sooth-saying
as do the idolaters, as the Bible commands, ‘Do not be involved in
sooth-saying.’ How so? If someone says, since the bread has fallen
from my mouth or the walking stick has fallen from my hands, I shall
not go to the place I had intended to get to today, because if I
did, my business would fall away from me as well… And similarly (it
is forbidden for) someone to make “signs” i>(simanim) for
himself, that if such and such happens to him, he will do this and
that…”
Along these lines, there is even a difference of
opinion as to whether or not Abraham’s servant Eliezer acted
correctly when he established a “sign” for the choosing of a proper
wife for Isaac: “the woman who offers me and my camels to drink the
water from the well will be a suitable wife for Isaac.” Maimonides
is actually critical of such a sign, but the Raavad (ad loc) is
vehement that Eliezer committed no transgression, and the Kesef
Mishneh (ad loc), Rav Yosef Karo, who declares that a righteous
individual like Eliezer could not possibly have sinned in such a
crucial decision like choosing a wife for our second patriarch,
explains the difference: The Bible forbids soothsaying, or “signs,”
when the sign of a fallen piece of bread is not logically
connected to the success of a business venture in a certain place;
in the case of Eliezer, however, he understood that the most
important quality for the wife of Isaac son of Abraham was kind
generosity, not only to a human stranger but even to an animal!
Hence his action was not a superstitious “sign”; it was rather an
intelligent test.
With this distinction in mind, we can understand the
message of the Rosh Hashanah signs. Our Sages are teaching us the
“power of positive thinking,” the importance of believing in oneself
and in one’s message in an optimistic way. If one lights a candle in
a room hermetically sealed off from any wind, the candle will not go
out! And what the Sages want is that everyone believes at the onset
of the year that he/she will live to see the year’s end. If you
believe it, chances are you will.
And if one brings up and nurtures a hen with proper
care and plentiful food, of course the hen will grow to be big and
fat; and if you tend to your business venture with the same care and
sensitivity, chances are that you will succeed in the business
venture as well.
The third example quoted in the Talmudic selection we
just discussed is strong evidence that my interpretation is
accurate. In the example of the shadow it is certainly logical that
– in a darkened house – the individual will see a shadow to his
shadow as night is falling. And the Talmud even adds that even if he
doesn’t, it is no proof of the failure of his business venture. Even
if he should fail, then it was the result of his own fear and
frustration in not seeing his shadow’s shadow, the fear and
frustration which came psychologically because he believed he
would fail. It is that lack of self-confidence that we call bad
luck!
ThThis is the strength and force behind the “signs” on
the evening of Rosh HaShanah. If we but believe in ourselves and our
mission, if we feel that G-d is on our side and we shall overcome,
we will overcome; we will gain many more merits – as numerous as
pomegranate seeds – and will vanquish our enemies. If you believe
that you’re a prince, you’ll grow up to be a king!
Shabbat Shalom, and have a good and
successful New Year!
Enjoying Rabbi skin's weekly e-mails?
Click to support OHR TORAH STONE Institutions or contact
parshat_hashavua@ots.org.il
to sponsor a shiur in honor or memory of a loved one.
ReReturn to Ohr Torah Stone
|
