Rosh Hashanah Message: Rabbi Ari Kaiman
Rabbi Ari Kaiman shares his thoughts and inspiration for the Jewish New Year.
“Ezra opened the scroll in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people; as he opened it, all the people stood up. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great G-d, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” with hands upraised. Then they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord with their faces to the ground. (Nehemia 8:5-6) We don’t pray enough with our hands upraised, or our foreheads on the ground. These are postures that reflect complete openness and vulnerability, and complete humility.
The High Holidays are some of the few times that we are invited by our liturgy into these positions. Our culture has somehow evolved to a place where openness, vulnerability, and humility have to be re-learned. The power of these postures to transform us for the better were lost to the criticism of “touchy-feely,” but touching, and feeling are how we “become what we want to be.” These are the postures that have the power to induce awe, the feeling that we are part of something much greater than ourselves, beyond our knowledge.
May we be blessed to raise our hands to the heavens in openness, to bow with humility at our smallness, and feel the gaze of G-d seeing our whole selves, and loving us despite our mistakes.
Rabbi Ari Kaiman is the senior rabbi at Congregation Shearith Israel.
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