CAN WE, DO BETTER?
By
J.D. Rayner
(Sermon for the Eve of Yom Kippur)
Every year at this séaaon we carry out Judaism's greatest
spiritual exercise.
We examine ourselves as at no other time.
We turn the searchlight of the divine "Thou Shelt" upon a year of
living.
And it reveals much that is disappointing:
shadows of our manifold failures.
upembellished, accusingly.
the ugly
They stand out stark and
But fie do not let them dismay us.
In the knowledge of God's forgiving compassion, and in tbg faith
that the soul which He haé given us is basically pure and infinitely
capable, we proceed to the second stage of our spiritual exercise.
W6 make lofty resolutions for the future;
we map out the life
that lies ahead, determined that it shall be different, very
different, tram the past which is beyond recall;
But there is a paradox in this annual exercise.
We make
brave resolutions, confident that we shall be able to carry them
out.
But is that confidence Justified?
When we examine honestly
the record of the last year, and compare it with the resolutions
which we made at 1ts_begihn1ng, we may well lose our confidence.
We can see little achievement,aon1y good intentions - the proverbia
good intentions w;th which the way to nail is said to be paved.
We resolved, perhaps, to control our temper more effectively;
but did We?
~
We resolved to be more thcughbfui of the needs of
w. (mi-q
V
'
-2others;
us;
but were we?
but dld we?
'We
We resolved to spread more happiness around
resolved to give up this or that unnecessary
luxury in the interest of some worthier cause;
but did we?
We
resolved to pray more, to study more, or to play a more active
part in congregational life;
but did we?
None of us can answer
these questions with an unqualified affirmative.
Was
it
then Just a bad year?
Were our good intentions
frustrated by exceptional circumstances, such as 111 health or
economic difficulties?
Or were we just unusually busy with
domestic and professional preoccupaticns?
not avail.
Alas, the excuse does
Far when we reflect, we must pass the sums Verdict
on the year before last, and the year before that, and the year
before that, and every year of our lifet
What ground, than, have
we for expecting the new year to be different?
1mg ourselves?
Are we not dacé$v~
Are we not nourishing a pious but unrealistic hope?
This thought leads to despair.
And in this situat1on of
deapair people are tempted to adopt one of two courses.
Some
conclude that there must be something radically wrong with the goal
they are pursuing, or with the methods by which they are pursuing
So they search feverishly for some new way, totally different
it.
from the 91d, more drastic, more axciting, more promising of immediate and farbreaching results.
In this mood they will rush head-
long into the arms of any panacea-monger who comes along, any
ideology that promises to cure in an instant their moral 1118.
It may be faith-healing, it may be spiritualism, it may be psycho-
-3There are even respectable
analysis, it may be Communism.
According to
religions which thrive on this mood of self-despair.
than it is just when man is utterly without hope, when he realises
most fully the bottomless depth of his depravity and impotence,
that he is ready to embrace the redeeming faith which they offer.
By this step, which can take place in the twinkling of an
can be raised from the depths to the heights:
called a proaelyte;
he
he is born anew.
That is why conversions to these religions are sudden.
conversion to Judaism is not sudden.
eye“,
But
The Jewish convert is usually
that is, literally, one who comes.
He
comes, not through a momentary flash of illumination, but
through a gradual process or thought and study and acclimétisation.
He comes to identify himself with a community;
and within that
community he treads the same 310w. toilsome path of spiritual
progress as his fellow-S‘Israelites.
There are others who react quite differently.
abandon hops and effort.
What use is 1:, bay they, to make lofty
resolutions when it seems certain
is the point of
They litérally
that;
they will be broken?
What
striving when the striving 13 foredoomed to failuré?
Why deceive ourselves any longer? Let us admit that we are what
we are and that we cannot alter our nature, any more than the
leopard can change his spots.
ago in Ecclesiastes.
all is vanity.
These people had a spokesman long
For it was he who éaid:
"Vanity of van1t1ea,
What profit hath man of all his labour wherein he
laboureth under the sum... That-which hath been is that which
-4shall be, and that which hath been
done;
done: 19
that which shall be
and there is nothing new under the sun.”
vanity and a atriving after wind.
an
Behold,
is
That which is crooked cannot
and that which is wanting cannot be numbered."
be made straight;
mm does this way of thinking
(From Chapter 1).
lead to?
11:
leads to the abdication of the role assigned to man, to the acceptance of conventional, sub-religious standards of behaviour, to the
irresponsible pursuit of pleasure and wealth.
short, to paganism.
reaches:
It loads, in
Listen to the conclusion which Ecclesiastes
"There is nothing better for a man than that he should
eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy pleasure for his labour...
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketb glad the life;
money answereth all thingy" (2x24! 10:19).
and
This pagan philosophy, which is based on the doctrine that
human nature is unchangeable, is one to which we are all prone.
We succumb to
it whenever
we say to our fellaénman:
sorry if you find this or that in me objectionable;
.my nature, and you must take me as
we are.
That
1::
I
am."
"Well, I am
but it is just
Now God does take us as
why the thought of His judgment must ever inspire
shame and contrition.
But God does not accept us as we
are“ He
requires us to do better, to progress spiritually and morally.
And
our religion teaches us that the requirement is not an impossible
one.
If there is one heresy in our religion, it is that
nature cannot change.
namu‘e can change.
hman
If thefe is one dogma, it is that human
- 5 -
But all our experience goes to show that it does not change
much, or that it does not change rapidly.
And it is this realisa-
tion which, if we are not careful, drives us into that mood of
despair from which men seek to escape by abandoning tfie 01d ideal,
egthar in favour of a new cue, or in favour of no ideal at all.
What does Judaiam teach us in this situation?
It teaches
.
us not to despair.
It teaches us that our striving is not a
striving after wind, that the goal is attainable, flaough the
journey be long and the progress slaw.
Our first need is to resist the danger of total self-condemna-
The record may be profoundly disappointing, but it is surely
not without successes, though they be little and few and far
tion.
between.
The Searchlight exposes unflatteringly the dark nooks
and crannies of our past failures;‘ but it also highlights here
and there a little promontory of achievement:
I
some little evil
trodded under foot, some little temptation resisted for the sake
of principle, some kind thought, some helpful word, some noble deed.
These positive instances may be woefully inadequate;
they would
not earn us God's forgiveness if it were not for the infinitude
of H13 love.
But from them we may draw encouragement.
They
assure us that, with God's help, we are not impotent.
They are
pointers to the progress which we cad achieve.
They are reminders
of the divine element in our make-up.
A Chasidic Rabbi said:
"What 13 the worst thing the Evil Inclination can do?
man forget that he is the son ot-a King."
And again:
To make a
"When
-5the Evil Inclination approaches, whispering 1n the ear:
not.
Law,
worthy to fulfil the
say: 'I grg
worthy.”
Contrition there must be, and there can
tion than that expressed in the Avinu Halkenu
be)
-
'You are
m,
no deeper contri-
£3323
chonnenu va—anenu, g; 9%; b_§_n_u_ me-asim - which, literally, means:
"Our Father, our King, have mercy upon us and maver us, for we
have no deeds to our credit which are adequate before Thee."
Yet that contrition must never be allowed to destroy 0hr self-respect.
Having restored our self-respect - this confidence in our
potentialities
~
we must continue to aim high.
We must not lower
our standards because we have so often failed to observe them.
The goal must always be the leftieet we can conceive.
It is an
error to suppose that Judaism offers a down-to-earth, easily
pmcti.cable code of ethics.
the demands it makes.
There
"Whose hat’eth his neighbour is a shedder of
blood. " (Derech Eretz Rabba, 11).
and uncompromising.
They
These imperatives are categorical
no concession to human weakness.
Such is the goal upon which we must
mallce
They are herqlc and sublime.
fix our gaze.
It must. not- be diluted.
And yet - and
yet; -
we must recognise that the road to its
attainment is a slow and graduai one.
shall
riot
lose heart.
to gain the victory
years.
nothing second-rate about
"Walk before No and be than perfect."
"Holy shall ye be. "
‘
its
,
If we recognise that we
As it has been said:
in a day.
"Do not hope you are
It may take months, it may take
Inch by inch, step by step the battle must be fought.
r7Over an: over again you will be worsted and give ground, but do
not therefore yield.
Resolve never to be driven back quite so far
as you have advanced."
(Whyte Melville)
Judaigm offers us no speedy, spectacular cure for our
it does not promise to turn us into saints
spiritual ailments.
overnight.
It bids us struggle, struggle along the path
01‘
progress, inch by inch and step by step, beckoned on by the lofty
ideal of perfection, inspired by the vision of the prophets,
strengthened by the disciplina of the religi one life, yet consaious
that within any measurable space of time our achievements must needs
be limited.
It is all summed
ascend-century Rabbi;
up in the‘well-known saying of a
"It 15 not your duty to complete the work,
but neither are you. free to desist: from it."
This Yom Kippur will not complete the worlé.
us to redouble our effortsu
Do not lose heart.
ia alive in
It says to you and me:
Do not condemn yourself.
you 58111.
Reéogniaa it.
But it urges_
"Persavaz‘el
The divine image
Nurture it.
Give it a
new lease of life.
Make new resolutions, and let them be lofty
ones.
Dedicate yourself to the new endeavour which is yet the
01d endaavour, the age~old endeavour of man to attain perfection,
to approach max-er unto God.
Enlist God's help by your contrltion,
by your prayer, by your earnest effort to harness your will to God's
will.
And the new year will not transform you into a saint; but
will lead you onward, onward along the road of progress which
is the only road worth treading.
Let your am be high; let
it
-8your expectation be humble;
let your faith be strong;
zeal be great."
"Tell me not, in moumt‘ul numbers;
'Llfe
1::
but an empty dreaml'
Far the soul is dead that slumber;
And things are
not.
Not enjoyment, and
what they seem.
not;
sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us further than to-day.
Tmat
no tutu-:3, howo'ovar pleasant!
Let the dead past bury its dead!
Act
-
act in the living Present:
Heart within and God o'erheadl
Lives of great; men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And,-
departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of t1mo-~
Footprinta‘thnt perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
let your
Let us,then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still'pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait."
(Longfellow)