Torah from Sinai

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  Friday, September 30, 2022 / 5 Tishri 5783

  Shabbat shalom for this “Shabbat Shuva”!

  One of the most intriguing – and hopeful – aspects of the High Holiday season is the designation of Rosh HaShana as “Hayom Harat Olam”, the day on which the world was called into being, the day on which it was conceived. Given the heavier themes of the holidays to which we are more accustomed, this aspect of the holiday strikes a welcome, positive note: The fact that the universe exists at all is a cause for wonder, for appreciation, for acknowledgment, and for responsibility.

  The idea of ‘Hayom Harat Olam’ extends a sense of promise and potential that can strongly motivate us to start the New Year on some positive notes. The Rosh HaShana holiday we celebrated earlier this week, then, was the day that recalls Creation, a day in which there was light instead of an overwhelming darkness, a day to ‘turn over a new leaf’, to make a fresh start, to turn the clock back, to begin again.

  Likewise, this positive theme can be detected in the notion of Shabbat Shuva, the Sabbath that falls between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. This special Sabbath gets its name from the first line of the Haftarah that the Rabbis instituted for the week: “Shuva Yisrael–Return O Israel unto the Lord thy God.” (Hosea 14:2) While each week Shabbat is, among other things, a celebration of the crowning of Creation, Shabbat Shuva directly parallels the primordial first Shabbat in its arrival on the heels of Rosh Hashana, the world’s ‘birthday.’