Dreaming of the Year Ahead: Essential Lessons From Shimon Peres z"l (Rosh Hashanah 5777)

At this season, the Jewish new year (“Rosh Hashanah”) exhorts us to dream big. It is a time to reflect on the year that has ended and to dedicate ourselves toward returning to the best of ourselves, deepening relationships that are dear to us, meeting the profound needs of others, and reaching the highest ideals of Torah. Those are huge aspirations. The juxtaposition this weekend of the Friday funeral for Shimon Peres, former prime minister and president of Israel, the Saturday Torah reading, and the start of Rosh Hashanah on Sunday night call to mind powerful lessons about these aspirations.

Shimon Peres believed deeply in the power of dreams and imagination. He said, “We should use our imagination more than our memory.” Using our imagination more than our memories is precisely what this Jewish season is about. We don’t discard our memories; we use them to animate our aspirations. We reflect on the year that is ending -- through our memories -- in order to inspire our dreams for the year ahead -- our imagination.

Learning how to navigate memory and imagination is an act of balancing. Peres spoke often about finding balance in our lives -- knowing how to distinguish between what is vital for our bodies and what is vital for our souls. Both are necessary, but neither are sufficient. In Peres’ words, “If you eat three times a day you'll be fed. But if you read three times a day you'll be wise."

Shortly after he left the office of president of Israel, I had the privilege to hear Shimon Peres talk about the essence of Judaism. (Peres was the special guest of the Wexner Foundation in celebration of its 30th anniversary in April 2015; I am so grateful for the foundation’s graduate fellowship that sustained my rabbinic studies and taught me so much more.)

Peres answered the question, ‘What does Judaism mean today?” He replied, “[In] my judgment, Judaism today is based on three principles. Number one to keep the moral code [as] the top of our considerations, [in other words] the Ten Commandments.” Peres went on to remind listeners that the Ten Commandments have endured for 3,500 years without a single word change; “age has not changed [their] power and strength.”

Peres continued that the second element comprising the essence of Judaism is “to continue [being] a people in search of innovation, of questions. We shouldn’t stop for a moment because this [search] is a consequence of trying to introduce morality as a guide for all of us.” The third element, according to Peres, is “we have to help other people to escape poverty and ignorance. We should and we can become a contributing people.” At other times, Peres characterized these two elements saying the greatest Jewish contribution to history “is dissatisfaction! We're a nation born to be discontented. Whatever exists we believe can be changed for the better.”

Changing for the better based on an awareness of what is wrong or broken are also at the heart of Nitzavim, the Torah portion from Saturday. According to Nachmanides (13th century, Spain) the only mitzvah in that entire Torah reading is doing teshuvah (repentance). The Hebrew term for repentance is rooted in the same word as “return.” In that sense, repentance is a process of returning to our highest ideals and to our community. We return through a process that reflects on our behavior against the standards set by ourselves and by our tradition.

The three elements identified by Peres -- honoring a moral code, questioning leading to innovation, and changing our lives and those of others for the better -- also are the essence of Rosh Hashanah and the High Holy Days.

In the coming days may each of us have the strength to reflect on our lives with clarity and the wisdom to navigate a path in the coming year that brings us closer to our highest goals and ambitions.

May the new year of 5777 bring many blessings and much sweetness.