Page 58 - HaMizrachi # 22 Rosh HahHana - Yom Kippur 2020 USA

GENERAL INTEREST SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Rabbi Chaim Navon

Facing Our Truth

hy is it difficult for us their deaths, and striving to make their contemporaries seek empowerment
to pray on Yom Kippur? lives more worthy. And they especially workshops and feel they lack per-
WWhy did our mothers and shed tears for their children. If my wife sonal power. For under the guise of
fathers shed tears like water while we and I have four children, then I pray to the superheroes’ cloaks and masks,
count how many pages are left in the G-d for six souls, not just one. humanity is becoming more and more
machzor? Maybe because our ances- neurotic, more and more complicated,
tors knew they would die one day, but Perhaps there is another reason why weaker and weaker. The gap between
we tend to think we never will. That is it is difficult for us to pray: it dimin- Clark Kent and Superman is widen-
if we even bother to think about the ishes us. For true prayer, one must ing. Even when we dress up in colorful
most important issue at all. admit that G-d is Great and All-Pow- tights, a mask and a robe, we remain
erful and I am small and fragile. How the same anxious and frustrated
Human life is short and fragile. True, hard it is for our generation to admit human beings, mortal and transient.
our lives today are a little less short this. Who do we identify with? We
than those of our ancestors. But that see the answer in popular movies and In recent years, I have heard more
does not really change anything. Each Purim costumes: we adore the invin- and more voices calling to erase the
of us will stand before the Creator cible superheroes of the comic book despair of the Yamim Noraim. People
of the World when his day comes, world. Are we really like that? Are we find it difficult to cope with the vidui,
whether in 20 years, 40, or maybe even supposed to be like that – invincible the litany of their shortcomings.
tomorrow, G-d forbid. The infantile heroes who overpower their oppo- True, a confession can also include
cult of today’s youth is fueled by vig- nents with the help of superpowers? an acknowledgment of virtues, but a
orous repression of this certain predic- person busy counting his virtues and
tion. 40-year-olds pretend to look and Prof. Mordechai Rotenberg, Israel successes all year long, a person full
act like 20-year-olds as if they would Prize laureate, developed a method of his achievements, wrapping himself
be able to deceive death itself. But if I of psychological treatment based on day and night in the victor’s robe, can
easily recognize they are 40-year-olds the Jewish spirit. He tells the story of he not allow himself – for one day of
and not boys at the height of their the time a man came to him for help.
youth, I don’t think the angel of death “My wife is very assertive and tram- the year – to admit he is not the epit-
will be confused either. ples over me time and time again. I’m ome of human perfection?
too gentle.” To which the professor
There are only two biographical replied: “If you had gone to another Why is it difficult for us to pray on
details we all have in common: we are psychologist, they would have encour- Yom Kippur? It’s a complex question,
all born and we will all die. Amazing aged you to become more aggressive. on which volumes can be written, and
how much energy we invest in ignor- Since you’ve come to me, I’m telling there would still be more to discuss.
ing this simple fact. you your behavior is totally okay. Send But I think the first line would be very
your wife to me for treatment.” simple: it is difficult for us to pray
A person who knows he will die one because it is difficult for us to look in
day always lives in a consciousness of Every day, I see advertisements for the mirror.
accountability. One day, maybe tomor- personal empowerment workshops,
row, he will stand before G-d and have as if what we lack is more power. I
to justify every deed he has done and wish I would see more self-aware-
every choice he has made. Our ances- ness workshops instead – a true
tors, who lived in such consciousness, awareness of the real and weak self.
stood in shul and wept on Yom Kippur, On second thoughts, it is no wonder Rabbi Chaim Navon is a renowned author
begging G-d to postpone the day of that despite all the propaganda, our and educator.

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