Our Father, Our King

Yom Kippur

by Rabbi Avi Billet

In one of his Yom Kippur addresses, Rabbi Joseph Hertz expressed that the prayer "Avinu Malkeinu Chatanu L'fanekha” is the prayer most reflective of our Yom Kippur goals.

We are admitting that we recognize a few very important truths about our relationship with God, and about ourselves.

“Avinu” means "Our Father." First we are recognizing, as Rabbi Hertz put it, "We can never cease being children of our Father in Heaven, just as little as we can ever cease being children of our earthly parents. Whether we are deserving of God's love or whether we are not deserving of His love, God remains our father."

The Torah tells us in Devarim 23:6 that God turned Bilaam's curse into a blessing, "Because Hashem your God loves you." It doesn't matter that the Bnei Yisrael had sinned before, or that they were about to sin with Baal Pe'or. Things may go very wrong, but God loves us. He is Our Father in heaven.

He is also “Malkeinu.” Though He is our father and loves us, this doesn't take away from His being our king he will not "permit the wanton breaking of His laws to go unpunished." God's love is combined with God's Law. "There is an everlasting disctinction between right and wrong… [between] thou shalts and thou shalt nots which are absolute and imperative."

There are countless parables in Jewish lore of a King whose son sinned, causing the king to make an example of his own son. Shaul Hamelekh (King Saul) almost killed his own son Yonatan! The story in Shmuel I:14 is incredible. Yonatan and a friend bring about the salvation for the Jewish people through a very decisive battle they wage essentially singlehandedly – while unaware that Shaul had declared that at the threat of death no one was to eat until the battle was over. After incredible military feats, in a fit of exhaustion, Yonatan ate a dabble of honey to rejuvenate himself. When Shaul found out about it, Yonatan was only spared because the people came to his defense arguing, "Will you kill Yonatan, who brought about this great salvation to us?"

A Father who is a King also has laws. And the laws must be followed – even though the father loves his son. If his son can get away with anything, there will not be any respect for the kingship and the Monarchy falls apart.

            The statement of the prayer concludes “Chatanu L'fanekha.” (we have sinned before You)

            The prophet Isaiah said (5:20), "Woe to those who say of the evil that it is good and of the good that it is evil; who present darkness as light and light as darkness, who present bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and in their own estimation, of profound understanding."

            We live in a time where there is rationalization and justification for everything we do or choose to not do. It is one thing to make choices of how to conduct oneself privately, it is an entirely other matter to blast one’s choices and rejections of tradition on the internet, justifying all with much less than a halakhic argument, and merely a “rational” or “emotional” argument.

            Not everything in Rabbinic Judaism is rational, not everything has a full reason or makes perfect sense. But we, the faithful, are committed to making a go of system that has survived for thousands of years. It may have undergone certain evolutions, and it may look a little different from the practices of our ancestors in Biblical times. But it has survived Crusades, inquisitions, massacres, pogroms, a Holocaust, secularism, and many obstacles thrown its way.

            Rabbi Hertz concluded his essay declaring, "This Day of Atonement prayer implies a turning away from the vanities of life, and a resolve to grasp the Almighty Hand which is ever outstretched to receive the penitent. It is that clear recognition of the sinful life which causes the sinner to forsake his evil way, and the man of iniquity his unrighteous thoughts. This withdrawal from sin is itself a return to God, a reconciliation and an at-one-ment of man and our Father who is in Heaven."

            As we undertake our Yom Kippur commitments, let us make the effort to impress upon our Father and our King that we are truly penitent.

            Perhaps it’s a blessing that we don't declare this prayer too often on this particular day of "Yom Kippur and Shabbos," because maybe it will be a retroactive indication that we truly will have done nothing wrong, and everything right on this Yom Kippur.

And if this shall come to pass for all of Israel, may our people be blessed to not only have a successful Yom Kippur, but a blessed year of good tidings, peace in our homes and peace in the Land of Israel.

Our Father Who Lives Forever

Parshat Re'eh

by Rabbi Avi Billet

As September looms and the thought of what the UN could vote upon in reference to Israel comes scarily closer, many feel the desperation of the future of the State of Israel. Not only that, but recent terror attacks once again remind us that the uncertainty that continues to dominate elements of Israel's future may sometimes foment within us feelings of despair over what is yet to come.

The Torah tells us, "You are children of the Lord, your God. You shall neither cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead." (Devarim 14:1) The specific prohibition is against certain acts of body desecration practiced by pagans in mourning, but it also implies that there is a deeper connection to God that presupposes any need for such extreme measures.

Rabbi Shimshon Nadel, a friend of mine, pointed me in the direction of the comment of the Seforno on this pasuk. He says, "You are children of God. It is not proper to exhibit complete and utter concern and pain over the deceased when there are still close relatives, even more honored, among the living. Therefore 'You are children of God' [reminds us] that 'Your father [in heaven] lives forever.' Don’t make a baldness because you are a holy nation… don't suffer too much for the deceased who died 'You are a holy nation' destined for the world to come, where 'bad times' are better than all of our lives on this earth."

The Seforno argues that we have two things going for us that transcend all kinds of trials and tribulations on earth. Our Father in Heaven is always there, and we are all destined for the glory of the World to Come.

It's an amazing thing to think about. In the scheme of the world, even those of us who live to be centenarians only exist for a relative blip in human history. Every person who lived before us, from every regular Joe to even the worst dictators in history, might have thought of their time and their existence as the time to be living, when the decisions they made were the most important the world had ever seen.

There is no question that all of history played a part in shaping and framing the world we have today. But 100 years from now, when very few of us will still be around, how important will our decisions, actions, and choices of today still be? Will we still have family members who remember us, who will even visit our graves?

Edmund Burke said, "Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it." I believe there is much truth to this statement.

The Jewish approach has always taken this to a higher level. Might I suggest that Judaism has stood not only for learning from history, but living within our history. We not only crave and yearn for great leaders of the past generation (how many still look to Rabbis Aharon Kotler, Moshe Feinstein, Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the Chazon Ish, etc?), but we also look to the Vilna Gaon, Maimonides, Rashi, the Geonim, the Tanaim and Amoraim, King David, Moshe, our forefathers. We not only learn from them, but we use their wisdom to guide how we live today.

What keeps us going most of all is our living Father in heaven. There are difficult times, and tragedy strikes all too often. Sometimes it comes in the form of terrorism, sometimes it comes in the form of a disease, sometimes it comes in the form of a terrible accident. None are immune from it. Some seem to get more of a free pass, and some seem to suffer more than others.

But our national experience will one day lead to that which the Seforno reminds us is our ultimate destiny: the blissful experience of the world to come.

It is often hard to remember, particularly because we are building legacies and trying to make the world cleaner and better for our future generations. We forget that our little blip in the existence of the world is our chance to land ourselves a better spot in the world to come.

I am not suggesting not to mourn when we experience a loss. Particularly when the loss seems or is unnatural, we are very sad because we will miss the person very much. And it never seems fair that that's the "only" chance the person will get. And thinking "he or she is in a better place" is really only comforting when the deceased was suffering immeasurably in this world – not when life was snuffed out in an instant.

But if we can shift our focus and imagine that a day will come when we will join our friends and loved ones in experiencing heavenly bliss, it will give our lives greater meaning. We will not need to resort to pagan practices that will only make our existence in this world suffer, because we will be renewed with a sense of purpose to live our lives in such a way that we will be able to join our loved ones when our Father in Heaven allows us to enter the world to come.