Rabbi Peter Berg’s Rosh Hashanah Message for 2024

Remembrance is an important theme of this season. On Rosh Hashanah we think about those we have lost in the world; at Yizkor we recall those we have lost in our lives; even the sound of the shofar is rooted in zichronot. What are we supposed to remember during this time?

There are four remembrances in the Torah that God asks us to hold in our minds. The Chasidic master Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apt teaches that these four remembrances are the root of our Judaism. What are these four?

The first remembrance is of Mount Sinai. God is asking us to live every moment as if we were still camped before the mountain. Heschel says: for a human being, there may be a past, a present and a future, but for God there is no time. God always gives us the Torah every moment of every day.

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We should imagine our lives as if we are always standing before God at Sinai. So, imagine our lives as if we are standing in God’s presence – all the time. How do we act? How do we treat other people when God is at our side? Ultimately, Heschel believes that it is important to REST IN THE CONSIOUSNESS OF SIANI, meaning that when we sit to study, our learning should be a living experience. We should feel God speaking to us through Torah, and we should tremble at the word of God.

The second remembrance is to keep in mind how God punished Miriam for speaking evil of her brother Moses. Avraham Yosef Heschel says that God doesn’t want us to be agents of strife and divisiveness. God is appalled by speech that is harsh and destructive. This is the time for us to focus on words of encouragement, support and healing. Let this time be used for words of hope, of inspiration, and of prayer. We bring light into the world by being God’s instruments, by bringing compassion down to the physical reality.

The third remembrance is Shabbat – a day to keep holy. Shabbat is a state of consciousness, a day to leave behind the chaos and disharmony and to rest in God, a time to turn all the habits of working and direct them instead toward that which is infinite and Eternal.

But the observance of Shabbat is not enough. God desires more from Shabbat remembrance. God urges us to bring the peace of Shabbat into our everyday encounters., to infuse our thoughts with its inner light.

Finally, God commands us to remember Amalek, the arch enemy of the Jewish people.

At the same time, we are asked to be instruments of good and to live in the consciousness of Shabbat, God also reminds us to never forget that each of us is capable of great evil.

God wants us to wipe out Amalek from the world but also the evil within ourselves.

Don’t mistake Heschel’s fourth teaching as a pessimistic view of humanity. It is a realistic understanding of the human condition.

We can all be saint or sinner.

As long as we remember both truths, then all is well. When one is forgotten, the world is plunged into crisis and turmoil. Amalek attacked the children of Israel when they were weary and tired. It is when we are in despair that the negative side comes rushing to confront us.

Our job is to draw on the Divine goodness that is stored within us, a prayer – especially this time of year – can help us overcome any obstacle. When we are alive with love and yearning for God, no evil can touch us.

These are the four remembrances at the heart of Judaism and the month of Elul.

Let us strive at every moment to stand before God. Only in that way can we raise up the Divine sparks hidden in everyone we encounter. Let us be a spiritual force that can transform the world.

Rabbi Peter Berg is Senior Rabbi of The Temple in Atlanta.