Page 12 - HaMizrachi Australia Rosh HaShana Yom Kippur 5781

TORAT MIZRACHI MIZRACHI SCHOLARS-IN-RESIDENCE

Sivan Rahav Meir and Yedidya Meir

What’s New

About Our

New Year?

e are so used to the word Elsewhere we read “On this day you allow our relationship to the Land of
“new” but the Torah asks have become the L-rd your G-d’s own Israel to become old or stale.
Wus to stop and contem- people” (Devarim 27:9) and Rashi, in
plate. To truly renew ourselves. What the same spirit of perpetual renewal, As the verse states, “And it will be
actually becomes “new,” in our world comments: “Let every day be in your when the L-rd brings you to the land
and in ourselves, at this time of year? eyes as the very same day you entered of the Canaanites as He swore to you
Our Sages ask us to contemplate three into a covenant with Him.” and to your forefathers, and He will
things each day, as if they were new: give it to you” (Shemot 13:11), upon
Now is the most appropriate time which Rashi elaborates: “‘And He will

1. Torah of the year to refresh and renew our give it to you,’ that is, you should con-
connection to the Torah, to think of
One of the most popular words in it as a gift we just received this morn- sider it as if He gave it to you on that
Devarim, which we read throughout ing, and to visualize how the new year same day and not as an inheritance
the month of Elul, is םֹוי ַ ה – “today.” will look when a completely new light from your ancestors.”
Again and again, as we read about of Torah – one never seen before – It does not matter where we live.
entering the Land of Israel, we are shines upon it from within.
asked to relate to past events as if they We must create a personal, vibrant
are actually happening to us this very 2. Eretz Yisrael and emotional connection with
morning, and not 3,000 years ago in the Land of Israel. We cannot rely
the desert. “On this day the L-rd your The Land of Israel is the Promised only on what we were told by our
G-d commands you” (Devarim 26:16). Land, the Holy Land, but is it a new great-great-grandparents. Again, the
Rashi comments: “Each day, let them land? Indeed, we justifiably tell our- months of Elul and Tishrei are the
(the commandments) be brand new selves and the entire world that we perfect time to think about how to
as if you had just been commanded to have an ancient, historical right to this bring a new and authentic connection
perform them.” Land. Nevertheless, we should never with the Land of Israel into our lives.

12 |