Shabbat Message from Rabbi Forman - 9/29/06

For this I waited? It better be good. On Shabbat, during the Amidah section of the service when we read of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, we might come across a tiny asterisk that has the following words placed next to it: "On Shabbat Shuvah insert". Guess what? Shabbat Shuvah has arrived, and we get to read that extra line which we have been skipping
all year long.

So what does it say that is so important that we only read it on Shabbat Shuvah, this Sabbath that falls between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur? The words are: Remember us for life, Ruler who delights in life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life, for Your sake, God of life.

For such a short sentence, it's striking that the word "life" occurs four times. That's a lot of life squeezed into a little package. Not surprising then, is the notion that life is the highest value in Jewish living. Not martyrdom. Not adherence to Mitzvot. Not learning or even good deeds. Living is.

Staying alive and keeping others alive. What is surprising, though, is that not all religious traditions share this ultimate value. Perhaps that is how religious fervor gets a bad name. If being religious meant you were committed to something as universal as life, how different our world might be.

On this Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of turning, perhaps we all might reconsider what religious living might mean for us. There might be something to it, after all.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Joseph M. Forman

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