Expanding the “We” for Rosh Hashanah

By: Rabbi Mike Moskowitz and Rebecca Krevat

When we bless G-d before participating in mitzvah, even those that seem highly individualized like netilat yadayim, the sanctified washing of our hands, we do so as part of a collective. The blessing we recite beforehand declares, “who sanctifies us with G-d’s commandments.” Similarly, when we confess our sins, as we will be doing in just a few days, it is also in the plural: “our Father, our King, we have sinned before you.” There is holiness in the collective, and we must consider each other as we repent, and repent for having not considered each other enough.

As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, the day when the entire world is judged, we are called to reflect upon not just ourselves, but on our community as a whole. Who have we lifted up? Who have we forsaken? Often, we create our community by separating the “us” from the “them.” How might the world be different if we expanded the “we” to the world; we who are created by G-d? What blessings might be actualized if we worked to fulfill the words of our own prayers?

This week, like every Shabbat before Rosh Hashana, we begin the Torah reading with this :

אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙ כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם לִפְנֵ֖י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם…

You stand this day, all of you, before the LORD your God…

What was special about that day? Are we not always before G-d?

Rashi contextualizes this event and explains this day as Rosh Hashanah, the day we became responsible for each other.

אתם נצבים. מְלַמֵּד שֶׁכִּנְסָם מֹשֶׁה לִפְנֵי הַקָּבָּ”ה בְּיוֹם מוֹתוֹ לְהַכְנִיסָם בִּבְרִית:

YOU ARE STANDING THIS DAY — This teaches that Moses assembled them in the presence of the Omnipresent on the day of his death, in order to initiate them into a covenant with Him.

Tradition teaches that the covenant being referred to here is the covenant of of arvut, of being guarantors for each other, that we committed to on that day. As guarantors we protect and care for each other. We feel the responsibility to provide for each other they way we fight for our own self-preservation. The Torah was never given only to an individual or even the rabbis, but to all of us as a collective — as one person with one heart. No one person has all 613 commandments to themselves. We need each other to do the mitzvot to be complete in our relationship with G-d.

The Talmud extends the breadth of our interconnectivity by explaining that the entire world is forgiven on account of a single repentant individual:

Yoma 86b

תניא היה ר”מ אומר גדולה תשובה שבשביל יחיד שעשה תשובה מוחלין לכל העולם כולו

It was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir would say: Great is repentance because the entire world is forgiven on account of one individual who repents,

When we do teshuva — our acts of repentance will have a ripple effect that extends beyond the walls of our synagogues, and into the world.

Furthermore, R’ Menachem Azariah of Pano (the Rama), explains that the covenant of arvut means that the soul of each person on Earth is contained within our own soul as well. When we repent for ourselves, we are also literally repenting for each other. The word arvut means mixture, reiterating the fact that we are all in this together. If one of us is oppressed, then we all must feel like we are the one being oppressed, because part of our soul truly is. We must feel for example the pain of the parent that has had their child forcefully taken at the border, on a soul level. We must open ourselves to the anxiety that trans folks experience knowing that Massachusetts will vote on whether to legalize discrimination against them because their pain is ours, and more importantly, are responsible to do something about it.

We are now standing in divisive times where it is more urgent than ever to see the G-dliness that resides within every person. We must see that our communal actions of teshuva stand as guarantors to protect each other within our community, but also that our cries for forgiveness and redemption stand to protect the entire world, our extended national and global community under G-d. If we want to successfully stand in front of G-d this Rosh Hashanah, we must see the needs of all of G-d’s creations as our own spiritual and collective responsibility.

Rabbi Moskowitz is the Scholar-in-Residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, and has received three Ultra Orthodox ordinations while learning in the Mir, in Jerusalem, and in Beth Medrash Govoha, in Lakewood, NJ.

Rebecca Krevat is a co-founder of Hitoreri: An Orthodox Movement for Social Change.