Rosh Hashana Prayers--The Musaf Amidah September 2010

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September 2010/Tishrei 5771

A JOURNAL OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY

Rosh Hashanah Liturgy

Aryeh Cohen Engaging Prayer . . . . . . 2

David Ellenson & Sharon Brous Authority in Contemporary Times . . . 3

Meesh Hammer-Kossoy A Quest for Dominion . . 7

Tamar Biala I Will Have Mercy on Him, Mercies. . . . . . . . . 8

David Lazar Remembering toLet Go ............ 9

Jeremiah Lockwood The Shofar and the Power of Memory . . . . 11

Discussion Guide . . . . . 11

Sue Fendrick, Michelle Friedman, Jeff Helmreich, David Ingber, Or Rose Addressing Collective & Individual Sin: A Roundtable on Teshuvah. . . . . . . . . . . 12

Yosefa Fogel, Angela Himsel, Richard Marker, Moshe Waldoks Short Takes on Al Chet. . . . . . . . . . 16

Louis Newman, Kenneth Chasen, Emily Filler, Frani Pollack NiSh’ma . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Richard Chess, David Lehman, Erika Meitner, Yakov Azriel A Collabrative Poem: “Know Before Whom You Stand” ......... 18

Adena Berkowitz Book Review. . . . . . . . 19

Daniel Weiss ForOur Sins ........ 20

Amy Eilberg
Sh’maEthics . . . . . . . 24

From the Publisher

s I write, it’s still summer at Lake Chautauqua in Western New York. A few days ago, my wife, As we walk out onto a narrow dock, something catches my eye. A dull-white curve beneath the surface. And another. My sons point. Dead fish. We leave the dock, walk along the road that hugs the shore, and I can see over the reeds, dozens of bloated bluegills, white perch, and mudpuppies with rear legs dangling sickly in otherwise clear water.

According to state biologist Paul McKeown, the week
of intense heat, as well as human activities that impact
the lake — fertilizing gardens, laying down rich soil with-
out buffer management — contribute to a “perfect storm
for fish kill.”
I’m forced, suddenly, to confront my own responsi-
bility for sustaining the environment. Though there is
much I do take active responsibility for, other responsi-
bilities — no less important — slide too easily to the
A
periphery over the course of a busy year.

This Rosh Hashanah, we welcome many new readers into our pages. We always strive to bring you intellectual vibrancy and thought-provoking pieces that push the boundaries of pluralism and engage you as we navigate the intellectual, communal, and spiritual challenges of contemporary Judaism. In essays that are accessible to a lay or professional readership, we unpack the complexity of Jewish ideas.

We focus this issue on the musaf prayer of Rosh Hashanah. The musaf is divided into three sections — malkhuyot, zikhronot, and shofarot. We’ve invited writers to explore — as expansively as they wanted — the themes associated with each of these three sections: authority, memory, and the call of the shofar to redemption. An exchange of letters between rabbis David Ellenson and Sharon Brous explores themes of authority among rabbis today; Meesh Hammer-Kossoy looks at authority in ancient times and wonders out loud about a liturgy constructed around images of kingship. Tamar Biala writes a midrash focusing on memory (zikhronot) and a broken heart, and David Lazar writes about memory as an emblem of God’s caring for humanity — and the power of memory to hurt

From the Editor

and heal. Finally, the musician Jeremiah Lockwood shares
his associations with shofarot, the blasts that awaken our
soul and create a “doorway into a holy place.”
Our Roundtable explores the relationship of memory
to repentance and also the notion that one needs to be
in a state of temptation to wrestle with and overcome
one’s impulses. Collective sin and repentance are
addressed both in the Roundtable — in discussions
about South Africa and Rwanda — and in a piece by
Daniel Weiss who writes, “Each member of Israel... bears
responsibility not only for sins committed in his or her
own name, and not only for sins committed in the name
of other individual members of Israel, but also for sins
committed in the name of Israel as a whole.”
Rabbi Amy Eilberg launches this year’s Sigi Ziering
Ethics Column, which will focus on the ethics of immigration
— how we see our neighbors and ourselves. Each month,
a guest columnist will peer into the immigration debate
raging in America; we’ll also look at immigration issues
and the lives of undocumented workers in Israel.