Page 33 - HaMizrachi Australia Rosh HaShana Yom Kippur 5781

YAMIM NORA’IM READING

Yael Leibowitz

Chana’s Lessons for Covid-19

osh Hashanah and Yom Kippur state is something to which many ways to uphold ritual norms. Wars,
are a time of grandeur, and of us may currently relate. She is plagues, periods of oppression. Each
Rof tradition. Each year, as the described as being frustrated with her historical contingency brought with
summer draws to a close, and the reality, and sad about all the things it its own set of challenges. Our chal-
familiar sound of the shofar becomes she is missing. She is angry, maybe lenge this year is to find a way to con-
part of our daily experience, we real- even irrationally, at herself and at the nect, even as we are disconnected.
ize just how much our souls long for people around her. When the text Our challenge this year is to find
the rituals that facilitate the teshuva describes her inability to even par- inspiration, in the absence of those
process. We long for the sea of white ticipate in her family’s celebrations, things we rely on to inspire us. Our
that creates a sense of reverence, and one senses a profound loneliness and challenge this year is to remember we
for the familiar tunes that thunder disconnection.
through our synagogue halls. We are still a link in our chain of tradi-
long for the worn pages of machzorim Chana doesn’t remain mired in self- tion, even if the wrinkled hands can’t
that bring back memories of prayers pity though. She breaks with conven- pull us in close to remind us.
past, and for the wrinkled hands that tion and travels alone to the Mishkan And so, as we meet these challenges,
reach over every so often and pull us in Shiloh. Once there, she doesn’t let us look at Chana. Let us look at
in close. We long for all the things we engage with a Kohen or bring a sac- what it means to keep praying, even
have come to associate with the high rifice, as would have been expected.
point of our religious calendar. Instead, she utters a silent, personal as we feel isolated, and know that
prayer. The text seems to be saying what we’re feeling now won’t last for-
But this year is different. Cognizant that Chana is not relying on people ever. Let us remember that ultimately,
of the fact that Jewish Law prioritizes around her, or on traditional rituals, our fate lies in G-d’s hands and that it
human life above all else, Jews around to extricate her from her misery. She is not the volume of our tefillot that
the world will have a religious expe- uses her loneliness to fuel a connec- reverberates, but their sincerity.
rience wholly different from what tion with G-d that is qualitatively
they are accustomed to. For many of different from anything her contem- As we listen to Chana’s words, let us
us, the lack and the emptiness will be poraries – even Eli the High Priest – take comfort in knowing that even
profound. And so perhaps this year, had ever seen. Rather than depending the quietest of prayers can breach the
more than any other, we can draw on things external, Chana reaches gates of Heaven.
insight from the Haftarah we read on deeply into her pain, her desires, and
the second day of Rosh Hashanah. In her faith, to craft a prayer that sets
this famous portion, we encounter the template for all subsequent tefillot Yael Leibowitz has taught Continuing
Chana, Elkanah’s barren wife, in the (Berachot 31a). Education courses and served as Resi-
throes of despair and longing. And dent Scholar in New York. She is currently
while Chana’s struggle is unique to Our history is filled with scenarios teaching as she continues her studies at
her, the depiction of her emotional that have forced Jews to find creative Bar-Ilan University.

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