Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1992-09-24

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THE
The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbus and the Central Ohio
Jewish Community since 1922
VOLUME 70
NUMBER 39
SEPTEMBER 24, 1992
26 ELUL 5752
DEVOTED TO AMERICAN AND JEWISH" IDEALS
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4 3.cM.l COMP
From Creation to self-creation
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By Irving Greenberg.
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
There are two seemingly disconnected themes at the heart
of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy
and rituals: divine creation of
the world and human repentance. Yet, in the philosophy
of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveit-
chik, these two concepts —
Creation and repentance —
are profoundly united. Together they teach a Jewish vision of the purpose of human
life.
First, the liturgy celebrates
the New Year as the anniversary of Creation. "Today is the
birthday of the world," says
the traditional Rosh Hashanah prayer just after the shofar
is sounded to proclaim God as
the Ruler of all God's Creation. The classic aleynu pray-, (
er opens: "We must praise the'
Lord of all Existence, (we)
honor the Creater of Creation." Another passage
pleads:, "Manifest Yourself in
all the glory of Your overflowing power ... so that every
creature will know that You
created-it." \
the second, theme starts
■with -Rbsh/Hasha'nah atf*the'
first of the Ten Days of Repent
lance and climaxes in the repeated confession of sins and
the divine proclamation of
forgiveness on Yom Kippur.
The shofar blast is the call to
repent. Maimonides writes:
"(The shofar), as it were, says:
awaken sleepers .., look to
passages
fa*A *
your souls, improve your ways
and actions; let each one leave
his wrong path" (Maimonides,
"Mishneh Torah," Laws of
Repentance, chap. 3, par. 4).
But what is the connection
between repentance and Creation? Is it simply that God is
so awesome as Creator that
humans fear divine wrath and
scramble to win approval?
No, says Rabbi Soloveit-
chik. The purpose of the biblical account of Creation is "not
to reveal the secrets of cosmology" but. to give all of humanity its mission. "When the
Holy One, the Blessed, created,
the world, God left room for
God's personal creation—the
human being — to participate. It is as' if the Creator
made flaws in all of Being so
that flesh and blood mortals
will fill in the flaws and upgrade it."
In Soloveitchik's view, tikkun olam (perfecting the
world) is the prime calling of
- humanity. "The human being
is obligated to complete what
the Creator 'spoiled.'" God;
' as* it were, started the process
by  setting limits to chaos
through natural law and order
'. —"but the hjimaii' mUst> complete the Creation both physi-.
cally and ethically. "The creature is commanded to participate with the Creator in the renewal of Creation" (Joseph B.
Soloveitchik, Haiakhic Man,
W.Z.O. Hebrew Edition, pp.
.84,89,88).
Jewry snares this mission.
"Knesset Israel (the Jewish
People through the ages) understands its fate as intertwined with the fate of all Being ... A perfected and whole
Creation — that is the hope of
hopes of Knesset Israel"
(ibid., 89, 88).
When God's Creation was
established but yet incomplete, what was left to humans
to fill in? First and foremost:
humans were to fill the earth
with life (Genesis 1,28). Then,
they were to increase the capacity of the world to sustain
life at the highest level (Genesis 1, 28; 2,15).
Therefore, all constructive
human labor — science to
cure disease" and improve life;..
agriculture to increase nutrition; business and trade to sustain a higher level of well-being; politics and law to assure
the ethical balance of life and
justice for society — is holy
work.
Properly done, these activities fulfill the human mission
to be a partner with God.
"The peak of ethical and religious perfection, that Judaism
seeks to achieve, is the human
being (playing this role) as the
creator (of the perfected
world)" (ibid., 84).
Repentance is critical to tikkun olam. Humans must repent and cease spoiling the
world: "that we. stop the oppression we inflict (on others)
with our own hands and re-
1urri,,to You to observe' Your
desirable laws with a whole
heart" (Yom Kippur liturgy).
But—here is Soloveitchik's
brilliant contribution — repentance is a much broader
concept than turning from evil
behavior to doing good. Sure,
the indispensable first step is
to stop being wicked. But Soloveitchik rejects a narrow
definition of repentance as
primarily the purging of sin
and guilt. He criticizes the excessive concentration of "religious man" on sinfulness, re-
' gret. and tears which in turn
leads to asceticism and self-
denial.
Repentance, properly understood, is broader; it is nothing less than "the work of Creation — self-creation." Overcoming past habits, developing new skills, breaking out of
routine are all aspects of repentance (ibid., 94iT, 92).
Individuation is another
facet of the process of repentance." Moving away form generic, species behavior, the
human grows beyond social
conformity and group-think
and becomes a free, active individual who takes up the
work of partnership and perfection in every aspect of life.
Repentance also expresses
and affirms free will; it proves
that the individual is not a
fixed product of past experience. A growing, self-creating
individual breaks the "determination" of past behavior—
even of past trauma — and'
thus becomes fully human.
Maimonides writes that the
more humans become individuals, exercising free will,
the more divine providence
focuses on them. Animals live
and die randomly as species
types but each unique human,
V being lives out his or her own*
mission in the full glow of divine providence. Thus, repentance as self-creation draws
down the fullness of divine
spirit. This is at once the purpose and the fulfillment of the"
halacha, the Jewish way of life
(ibid., 104ff, UOff).
On Rosh Hashanah, when
we assess our lives, when we
turn from evil, when we renew
ourselves, we use God's ultimate gift — our creativity. In
growing and changing, we establish freedom in our internal
world. Inner freedom is a pre-:
see ROSH pg. 19
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