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'fIZ‘A_F(a£EhaL
THE PROGRESS OF
‘l‘HE'
lNDlVIDU‘AL
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______________________________
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[Wat
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Every year at this season we embark upon Juaaisn‘s greatest
We examine ourselves asé#e_c§aaéae-ee£sel¥s§]at—fif#&q
spiritual exercise.
We turn the searhhlight of thé divine "thou shalt"
no other time.
upon
a
AkJLL*
year of living. ’nnd that éearchlight reveals much that is
deeply disagpointing: the ugly shadows of our mahifold failures.
They stand out stark gnd unembellished, accusingky.
But we do not
In the knowledge of God's forgiving compaSSion,
let them dismay uS.
in the faith that the soul which He has given us is basically pure
and infinitely capable, we proceed to the second Stage of Sui Spiritual
We mafitlofty resblutisns for the fdtfire: we map out the
exercise.
life that lies ahead, determined that it Shall be different, very
different, from the past that is beyond recall.
What is the meaning of this annual exercise?
a
tradition which we care to perpetuate.
healthy and useful discipline.
It is more than
It is more even.than a
It implies a certain fundamental
conception of man hingelfAj&g4wuLand_hée—£afifiéée+F4h—4ha—unix3153;}
Underlying all our prayeis and our ceremoniesr—anée§%§§ag¥vur
dj
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Baa
jifiij
E
an’isifi 55g) H2qliarjcusaaa SEJE
fiafiééfiUfiJuu; there is one great idea, one great conviction.
1: is
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that human life $§5ke purpose ana that that purpose is - progress.g
means tws thigys.
[gas-s
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mHmWWegress
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mag,and-fihat—pregfess—isf;g§ggbanx_uynn_man.3 Man is essentially
He possesses great'potentialitieé, but
incomplete.
these
‘
Ew$efltistztzes%are, 1n hls present state, largely unrealised.
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.
.
.
.
Other animals are what they area¥j#99—;94fiy4%§—wh&eh-4Huty—er€~
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Lfiyv
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capahlp’ rha r019 Whinh is 29:13“
a
tv4%hcm, that
EEQ¥€QHfl§Afiél
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Befoie man there lies an infinitude of pos§.ble development, of self—
reaLisation.
He finds himself at the beginning of
long journey which
Every man, even the best, is only at the
he can travel if he will.
beginning
a
.
But
equally every man, even the worst, can do better, can maka headway
an the
road of progress.
Ware it not so, thére would be no point
in the divine commandments;
there would be no point in religion.
Cur moral conscience would be
things
a
cruel illusion.
divine call.
a
mockery, and our hopes for better
Man ggg conquer sin; man g§g_obey the
The commandment is not too hard for us; it is not in
hsaven, neither is it beysnd the sea.
that
It is very nigh unto us,
it is very applicablé to us, it is in our mouth and
(DEM/archway 30:11‘1")
in our heart that we may do lgé
is
to say,
.
Progress, yes, infinite progress, is gossible.
But progress
towards what goal?f?hH+fiflw—de4wgminas_$ha—geai3—£fiere‘jufivism—és
equeiiy_da£éfii1n God deteimines
in unequivocal terms.
thou perfect:
the goal; He has set it before us
"I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be
(Genesis 17:1). "Ye shall be holy; for
I the
Lord
your God am holyy" (Leviticus 19:1), The goal is perfection; the
goal is holiness; the goal is righteousness.
life is the imitation of God.
The purpose of human
It is Spiritual grewth.
it
is
sne.qn
unending pilgrimage bewards the idéaLEyhish_ouL—x£légienflhe&és;4uL
baflsrea+35%‘
I
*
-
-3...
It is this vigion or‘progress which givés meaning to human life,
Which Iedeems it from insignificance.
It is this 815D which mazes
sense of the annual spirituél exercise which these High Holydays
demand from us.
BecaLse life is
a
pilgrimage, an Upward struggle,
therefore it is to the point; therefore it is necessary, to pause
from time to time in order to survey the path we have trodden, to
re—establmSh our bearings, to refresh our vision
of the goal,
to
gather new strength for the onward journey.
But there is
a
paradox in-this annual exercise.
té—e$%§%&fiuigresolutions for
be able to carry them out.
We make brave
the coming year, confident that we shall
But is that confidehce justified?
when
we examine honeStly the record of the past year, and compare it with
the resolutions which we made at its beginning, we may well lose our
confidence.
We can see little achievement, only good
9axadé} We resoLved
to
inméntions,£§he
contnol our temper more effiectively; but did
we»;
we?
We resolved to be more thoughtful of the needs of others; butdhtd
we?
We resolved to éprcad mare happiness around us; but did we?
'We
resolved to give up this or that unnecessary luxury in the intem st
of some worthier cause; but did we?
study more, c: to play
a
We resolved to pray more, or to
more active part in communal religious life,
but did we?
ééd—aefia”
Was it, than, justfia bad year?
Were bur efforts fnustraaed
by exceptional circumstances: ill health, or financial worries?
Or
were we just unusually busy, pregbccupicd with external pressureS?
$ey A183, the excuse does not avail.
For when we reflect we must
pQSS'the same verdict upon the year before last, and the year
-4before that, and the year before that. ané—e¥ery—yea;_ni_wL94Aflee1
What ground, then, have we for expecting the new year to be different?
Are we not deceiving ourselves?
Are we not nouriShing one gigantic
self—delusion?
This thought leads to despair.
people adopt one of two courses.
And in this situation 3: despair
Some people conclude that there must
be something radically wrong with the goal they are pursuing, or With
the methods by which they are.pursuing it.
So they seek feveriShly
for sane nefi way, some way totally different from the old, more
drastic, more exciting, more promiSing of immediate and far—reaching
reSultS. ?1n this mood they will rfish headlong into the arms of
almost any panacea—monger who comes along, any ideology that promises
to cure in an instant their
be
moral 111$.
It may be communisn, it may
psycho—analysiS, it may be faith—healing, it may be spiritualism.
There are even r3;::e%eb%e—&flé—§owe;£ul religions which thrive on this
mood of self—despair. According to them it is just when men is utterly
without hope, when he realises most fully thy bottomless depth of his
impotence, that he is ready to embrace the redeeming féith which they
offer him.
By thié step, which can take place in the twinkling of an
eye, he can be raised from the depths to the heights: he is born anew.
That is why conversions to these religions are sudden.
to Judaism is not sudden.
The JewiSh convert is usually called a
proselyte, that is, literally, one who comeS.
a
sudden inSight, but through
and acclimatisation.
But conversion
a
He comes, not through
gradual-process of study and thought
He comes to identify himself with a community;
and within that community he treads the same gradual, toilsome path of
fircw“
spiritual 34¥anssmsat as his felIOw—lsraelites.
_ 5 _
Tnére are others who react differently in the mbod of self—despair.
Tney literally abandon hope and'effdrt.
What use is it, say they, to
make lofty resoluuions when it seems certain that they will be broken?
What is the use of striving When the striving is of no avail? why
Let us admit that we are what we are
deceive ourselves any longer?
our nature.
and that we cannot alter
long ago in Ecclesiastes.
fhese people had a Spokesman
It was he who said: KXKKKXKXEXXXXKEXHXE
fixxxagxgxx "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit hath mam
or all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun?...Ihat which hath
been is that which Shall be, and that which hath been done is that which
shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun..:gi have.seen
all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity
striving after Windéa That which is cracked cannot be made
straight; and that which 15 wanting cannot be numbered."(l:2b—3,
and
a
fi%hat does this way of thinking lead to?
'
wealth.
of
l§§l§)
It leads to the abdication of
the role assigned to man, to the acceppance of conventional,
religious standards
9,
sub-
behaviohr, to the pursuit of pleasure and
1t leaGS, in Short, to paganism.
These are the concluéions
Which Ecclesiastes reaches; this is the best advicé he has to offer:
fiTnere is nothing better £0;
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 maketh glad the life; and money answereth all
things." (2:24; 10:19)
on the doctring that
This philog)phy, this paganism, which is based
Kammxx human nature ié unchangeable, is the
antithesis of Judaism.
But let there be nm migtake about it: we are
all grams to it at times.
neighbour: "Well,
I
We succumb to it whenever we say to our
an sorry if you find this or that in me
objectionablg
but it is just my nature, and fan must take ma as
does take us as we are.
I
am."
Well, God
Inat is Why the thought of His judgment upon
us must ever inspire awe afld shamé and contrition.
But God does not
He fequiies us to change, to progress.
accept as as we erg.
Jewish heresy is that human nature cannot change.
The great
The great JewiSh
dogma is that human nature gan change.
Yet all our experience goes togshow that it does not change
much, or that it does not change rapidly.
And so we are tempted into
the mood of despair E§_whLch—4—heve’3pvt1fij—$ha4muxp}rom which men
4
the
seek to escape by forsaking/journey whlch they have been pursuing,
_
either in favour of
a
new journey, or in favour of no journey at all.
What does Judaism teach us in this situation?
It teaches us
not to despair nor to forsake our journey. It decla&ee—afi%e—&e alflrm;
ce;egcrica$£§ that our striVing is not
a
striving after wind, that
the goal is attainable, though the journey be long and the progress
slow.
The first need is to resist the danger of complete self—condemnation.
The record may be profoundly disépyointiné and
disturbing, but it is
I
surely not without successes, though they be Little and few and far
between.
The sea;chlight exposes unflatteringly the dark‘gnods and
crannieé of our gast failureS; but it'élso highlights here and theré
a
little promontory of achievement;'suue little evil trodden under
foot, some little temptation rejected for the sake of principle,
some kind thought, some loving deed.
Such instances of progress
are woefully inadequate: they would not earn divine forgiveness
_ 7 _
Yet frmn them, never—
were it not for the infinitude of God's love.
They assure us that, with God's
theleés, we may draw encouragement.
help, we are not impotent.
They are reminders of the divine element in our
we can achieve.
make—up.
A
clination
a
They are pointers to the yrogress which
Chasidic Rabbi said: "What is the worst thing the Evil
can achieve?
king."t
To make a man forget that he is the son of
‘
bisperisg
”
ggr—%h£_iuuz;_£¥4uL—a%
~
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'
,
.
Contrition there must be, and theredcan be no deeyer contrition than that
expressed in the gzigu Malkenu?— Axinn'mQLKgflg, ghanngnn x§;gn§gg+ ki
g; Qggg ma—asig —qbur Father, our King, have mercy upon us and answer
as, for we have no deeds to our credit which are adequate before thee.
Yet that contrition must never be allowed completely to destroy our
self-respect.
Having restorea our self-respect, this confidence in our
potentialities, we must continue to aim high.
We must not lower our
standards because our past attainments are so Slight.
The goal must
always be the highest that we can conceive. [it Lfi’uu Chi“; t. SUPyDSe
tfla$—Juéaihm u£;crg a mundauc, caaily ytdubluable cues of cfihiesT-4mfife
1
Wmmemrwmmm—W
are_ca$£gnniaalr_ahaciujg+_unaampnsmisinga—A%aft—hetUYE—mv—Enfi—tv—thau
perfec$¢l_£fiQLy~shair“ye*fiF".
t
"me that sLahuezaLh iu as—ifi—he—had-den%ed
Wee—9%rfiigé9n1LéframfirWfisTIfi—fifmmghw
~
i,flflflfiiuii’laoiiJflue.chr—E—Eewt-s-R-ab-b‘a-i—H—Wmafin'smr y
is~snmpaxableéto—a-muLdaneia"
GBa—64m9—&n—th£§©“§§7$hgs“Trvm‘fhe
Bibie_enfl_jhe_BaJmud—$here—is—nn—tonne38inn—to—human*wceknEBST——They
~
_ a _
figyawg_gg§lix¥.o£—exmfemismj-fif—sah&intty7-of~hereism. Such,is_1he
oaL¢,3hembeacon,upon~whrcfi we musf‘TiX‘flur*gazew_fll$~&usmmnfi$~ba~
awed?
F:;\\‘Yet we must recognise that the road to its attainment is
slow and gradual one.
'n
I c ',‘
in a day.
If we recognise that we shall not lose heart.
‘
'
"Do not hope you are to gain the victory
Inch by inch, step
It may take months, it may take yeaIS.
by step the battle muSt be fought.
Over and over again you will be
worsted ana give ground, but do not therefore yield.
to be
a
Resolve never
driven back quite so far as you have advanced." Lwhy%e—Mebv&%%e)
gghngée$4ew—saié’sumething—vvry~s§wilar
.
:—
hav€/£g£,wingS, we cannot soar;
gum/QB have feet to sc:::/gpd/€iimb
//
By slow degrees, by moz. and more,
Ne
The cloudy summits of our time.
1/
/
The heigfits by great men reachéfl and kept,
//
weré not attained by/Ehdflen Slight,
/
#But they, white their companions/giggg,
Werg/xpiiing upward’ia’fg;/;;ghf::]:j~
Judaism ofxers us no speedy, spectacular cure for our spiritual
ailments. It does not prmmise to turn us into saints overnight. It
bids us struggle: struggle along the path of progress, inch by inch
and step by step, beckoned on by the lofty ideal of fifififiaéfiififi God-like
perfection, yea—eaheeéows=mha$¢~wL$h§n~a—measufiehie-fiifififiapantfiU¥i%flhe
_ 9 _
guided b§ Israel's great teachers of the gast whose accumulated
wisdom we call Torah, yet‘conscious that within
of time our
achievements must remain limited.
a
measurable space
"It is not thy duty
to cunplete the work, but neither art thou free to desist from it,"
said a second—century Rabbi.
~
This Rosh EEEEEggh, these Days of Penitence, will not complete
the work. But they urge us,_Lheg‘g;ge.§ou—aaé—mgq to redouble our
efforts.
Do not lose heart.
They speak to us: "Persevere!
condemn yourself.
Recognise
The divine image is alive in you still.
a
new lease of life.
and let them be lofty ones.
Dedicate yourself
>it.
Cnerisn it.. Give it
Do not
flake new resolutions
to
the new endeavour
which is yet the old endeavour, the age-old endeavour of man striving
after per;ection, striving after God.
Enlist God's help by your
contrition, by your prayer, by your effort to harness youi will to
Gegflé will.
And the new year will not transferm you into
a
saint,
but it will lead you 3nward, forward, ffirwflfé along the road of
progress_which—is—£ae—eaéy—Tfififl—we§;h—$;aad;ng* Let your aim be
high; let your expectation be humble; let your faith be strofig;
let your zeal be great."
"Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
'Life is but an empty dreamE'
For the soul is dead that Slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
_
10 _
Not enjoyment, and not SDIIOW,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that oaéh to—morr0w
Finds us farther than to—day.
Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, — act in the living Present!
Heart Within and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leaVe behind us
Footprints on the sands of timé; —
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A
ferlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With
a
heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn
to
labour and to wait."
5