[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15984]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               YOM KIPPUR'S LESSONS IN IRENE'S AFTERMATH

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, recently in my State, as throughout the 
world, Yom Kippur was celebrated. This beginning of the Jewish year 
comes as Vermonters and residents of other States are struggling to 
regain their footing and to renew their lives and livelihoods after the 
devastation wrought by Hurricane and Tropical Storm Irene.
  Vermonters of all faiths can take heart and inspiration from the 
thoughts about the meaning of the Yom Kippur observance, in the context 
of the aftermath of this natural disaster, which were presented in a 
recent essay published in the Rutland Herald and the Huffington Post. 
It was written by my good friend, Rabbi Michael Cohen. Vermonters' 
resilience in the face of this devastation and its lingering challenges 
truly has been remarkable. I commend Rabbi Cohen's message to the 
Senate's attention, and I ask unanimous consent that his essay be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be prined in 
the Record, as follows:

     Beginning the Jewish Year in the Aftermath of Hurricane Irene

                        (By Rabbi Michael Cohen)

       Acting as a leitmotif rain lightly showers the beginning of 
     the Jewish year. The powerful song Avinu Malkeiyu, Our 
     Father, Our King sung on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur was 
     written by the first and second century Rabbi Akiva as a 
     prayer for rain during a drought (Babylonian Talmud Taanit 
     25b). During the holiday of Sukkot, while the ancient Temple 
     stood in Jerusalem, the ceremony of drawing of the water, 
     Simchat Beit Ha-Shoeva was performed. It was said in the 
     Babylonian Talmud (Sukkot 51b), the rabbinic discussion of 
     Jewish law, that ``One who has not seen the joy of Simchat 
     Beit Ha-Shoeva has never seen true joy.'' Finally on Shemni 
     Etzeret, the one day holiday after Sukkot, Tefilat HaGeshem, 
     the Prayer for Rain is recited even to this day. With Judaism 
     arising out of a parched region of the world when it comes to 
     rain and water it is not surprising that such an emphasis is 
     placed on them.
       For those of us living in parts of the United States where 
     the effects of Hurricane Irene are still an all too real 
     reality the thought of praying for rain can be somewhat 
     jarring. That being the case, what can the holidays at the 
     beginning of the Jewish year offer us in the wake of Irene? 
     The symbol most associated with the Jewish New Year is the 
     shofar, the ram's horn blown during Rosh Hashanah and at the 
     end of Yom Kippur. In the Torah, the five books of Moses, 
     Rosh Hashanah is actually called yom teruah, the day of 
     blowing (the shofar). There are numerous explanations why the 
     shofar is blown on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; it is also 
     blown every weekday during the month of Elul, the month 
     before Rosh Hashanah. One explanation that addresses those of 
     us who felt the wrath of Irene is taught by Rabbi Art Green. 
     In the Machzor, a prayerbook for the Jewish holidays, of the 
     Reconstructionist movement called Kol HaNeshamah Rabbi Green 
     writes:
       The shofar sound represents prayer beyond words, an 
     intensity of longing that can only be articulated in a 
     wordless shout. But the order of the sounds, according to one 
     old interpretation, contains the message in quite explicit 
     terms. Each series of shofar blasts begins with tekiyah, a 
     whole sound. It is followed by shevarim, a tripartite broken 
     sound whose very name means ``breakings.'' ``I started off 
     whole'' the shofar speech says, ``and I became broken.'' Then 
     follows teruah, a staccato series of blast fragments, saying: 
     ``I was entirely smashed to pieces.'' But each series has to 
     end with a new tekiah, promising wholeness once more. The 
     shofar cries out a hundred times on Rosh Hashanah: ``I was 
     whole, I was broken, even smashed to bits, but I shall be 
     whole again!''
       Hurricane Irene literally and figuratively broke in some 
     cases, and smashed in other cases, people, their lives, and 
     their possessions. The road to wholeness for some was quick, 
     for others longer, and for some they are still a traveler on 
     that journey. The message of the shofar, as taught by Rabbi 
     Green, can help remind us not to lose hope along that path. A 
     similar message is also taught during the Jewish High 
     Holidays, but in a different way.
       According to the traditional reading of the Bible, Moses 
     received the Ten Commandments, called Aseret HaD'varim, 
     literally the Ten Words, (Exodus 34:28) on the 17th of the 
     Hebrew month of Tammuz. On that same day, ``Moses came near 
     the camp and saw the calf (idol) and the dancing, he became 
     enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and 
     shattered them at the foot of the mountain.'' (Exodus 32: 19) 
     One can argue that the pinnacle of his life's work was the 
     receiving of the Ten Commandments; and there they lay 
     shattered at his feet. Moses could have given up then, but he 
     did not. Rather he climbed back up Mt. Sinai on the 1st of 
     Elul and remained there for 40 days. Remember, according to 
     the text he is 80 years old at the time. While up there he 
     asked to see God face to face, but God told him that that 
     would be impossible as he could not survive such an encounter 
     and live.
       God tells Moses, after Moses carves a second set of blank 
     tablets that God will write the Ten Commandments on again, to 
     go to a crack in the mountain. At that point, as God's back 
     passes before Moses God reveals his essential attributes, 
     ``The Lord! the Lord! a God compassionate and generous, slow 
     to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending 
     kindness to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, 
     transgression, and sin.'' (Exodus 34: These attributes are 
     sung as part of the liturgy of the Jewish holidays at the 
     beginning of the year, as well as at other holidays during 
     the year. At the beginning of the year they remind us when 
     Moses was back up on Mt. Sinai and when he returned to the 
     people with the new set of tablets 40 days later on Yom 
     Kippur.
       Moses climbing back up the mountain serves as an important 
     model for all of us, not just those dealing with the 
     aftermath of Hurricane Irene. We all have moments in our 
     lives when something has been shattered. Often the easiest 
     way to deal with that new reality is to run away from it. 
     That is not what the actions of Moses tell us to do. When 
     Moses finds his life's work shattered in front of him he 
     turns back and retraces his steps up that steep mountain. The 
     word for repentance, the main theme of the holidays at the 
     beginning of the Jewish new year, in Hebrew is teshuvah which 
     means to return. Both the cycles of the shofar's notes and 
     the model of Moses returning to get a new set of tablets 
     provide us with a way to address what may have been shattered 
     by Hurricane Irene.

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