On Assuming Responsibility (Extract)

By DAVID ELLENSON
Extract from an article in Issue 12, September 29, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Report click here. As I approach the High Holy Days and engage in the work of heshbon nefesh, the examination of my soul, I am drawn to two particular texts that remind me what it is that God asks of me as I reflect upon the past and prepare for the forthcoming year. The first text is Responsum 26 in "Mayim Hayyim," by Rabbi Haim David Halevi (1924-1998), the former Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Halevi addresses the meaning of the High Holy Days by contrasting the notion of redemption informing them against the character of redemption associated with Passover. He frames his argument by taking note of Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a, where it states, "Rabbi Eliezer says, 'In Nisan [when Passover falls] Israel was redeemed. However, in the future, Israel will be redeemed in Tishrei [when the Days of Awe occur].' Rabbi Joshua states, 'In Nisan Israel was redeemed, and Israel will in the future also be redeemed in Nisan.'" Halevi observes that the dispute is not one of date. The precise time of "the future redemption" was not of great consequence to either rabbi. Rather, the issue was an ideological one regarding the nature of redemption itself. Halevi contends that the central ritual of Passover was the eating of the "matza of obligation - matzat hova" on Passover Eve, in commemoration of the matza our ancestors ate as they escaped from Egypt. As stated in Exodus 12, "And you ate [the matza] in haste (bahipazon)." Focusing on the word, "hipazon," and citing the Mekhilta (midrashic commentary on Exodus), Halevi states that it referred not to the haste of Israel alone, but "to the haste of the Shekhina (the Indwelling Presence of God)." According to this midrash, Israel was mired "in forty-nine gates of impurity" during their enslavement, "and if the Children of Israel had been delayed even one more second, they would have entered the fiftieth gate and it would not have been possible for them to leave Egypt." At that moment, the Shekhina appeared and redeemed Israel from slavery. The redemption from Egypt is one where Israel was totally lacking in merit. Redemption "was sealed by the will of God alone." The redemption of Nisan is "geulat hesed," a redemption of divine grace that God bestows upon an unworthy Israel. In the opinion of Rabbi Joshua, the ultimate redemption will be a "redemption of hesed" as well. Redemption is contingent upon the kindness of God. It cannot be attained through deeds that Israel might perform... Rabbi David Ellenson is president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Extract from an article in Issue 12, September 29, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Report click here.