TELL Magazine: October - November 2019

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the weeks ahead we will speak about the personal steps we can take in our lives to heal our relationships. For over 30 years I have called Australia home, and I hope we can heal the rifts in our greater home, with recognition, remorse and restitution - voice, treaty and truth is the appropriate response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We can then resolve to move forward as one country for all, with justice, truth, and peace - shalom. References: 1. Griffiths, Billie (2018) Deep Time Dreaming. Black Inc. Australia. 2. Pascoe, Bruce (2018) Dark Emu. Magabala Books. Australia. 3. Sveiby, Karl-Erik and Scuthorpe, Tex (2006) Treading Lightly. Allen & Unwin. Australia. 4. Broom, Richard (2010) Aboriginal Australians. Allen & Unwin. Australia. 5. Rowley, C.D (1970) The Destruction of Aboriginal Society. Australian National University Press. Australia. 6. Maddison, Sarah (<strong>2019</strong>) The Colonial Fantasy. Allen & Unwin. Australia. 7. Heiss, Anita Ed. (2018) Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia. Australia. {OPEN THE GATES TO FORGIVENESS} Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio This year we are delighted to be using our new machzor for the first time. The text is modelled on the American machzor with some changes to make it resonate with our region. There are a number of articles in this Tell which explain some of the choices that were made, and the vision for the machzor. As part of the process in America, numerous surveys were conducted where people were asked what they would like to see in the machzor, and what was important to them. These responses shaped the machzor which was created. Interestingly, one result from the survey was discomfort with the word ‘sin’. There was a push for it to be removed from the text. I am not sure if this is legend or reality, but there were discussions about whether ‘sin’ had a place in the machzor in our modern age, where we don’t believe in doctrines of Divine reward and punishment, heaven and hell, or the duality of the world in which our ancestors lived. It was possibly in response to these discussions about ‘sin’, that Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman wrote an article which appears in the machzor “Why ‘Sin’ Still Matters or What’s a Heaven For?” Our thoughts during the High Holyday period are infused with the concept of sin and repentance, judgement and forgiveness, the 8
weighing of deeds, contemplation of our lives. Our misdeeds and wrongdoings are taken and examined, and we hold a mirror to our true selves. We remove the pretence, the veneers, the masks we wear, and we confront who we truly are with all our flaws and wounds. If we remove the notion of sin from this equation, we are left with an emptiness and a moral relativism which is hollow, and we miss the power and purpose of this season. In our world we are uncomfortable with the word sin, and we struggle with saying that something is ‘wrong’. So often I hear justifications- “well you have to look at it from their point of view”, or “it is wrong for ME, but I can’t say whether or not it is for them.” Hoffman cites the work of A.J Ayer who says: “‘Murder is wrong’ simply means that the speaker disapproves of murder”. This leads us to the position of ethical relativism - nothing is a sin, nothing is right or wrong, it is just right or wrong for ME. Dostoevsky said, “in a world without God everything is permitted.” 1 So if we are no longer comfortable asserting that something is wrong, we negate the concept of sin. Afterall, if we don’t believe anything is wrong, if we don’t believe in heaven, Divine reward and punishment, then why have a concept of sin at all? The logical conclusion then is to remove ‘sin’ from the machzor. And it is not just to help others feel better and not ‘judged’; we do it for ourselves as well. We don’t like to feel uncomfortable. We don’t enjoy looking at the parts of ourselves which are less than perfect and our world is oriented to help us in this avoidance. Our on-line profiles portray our lives and ourselves in our perfection not our flaws. Even 1 Rabbi Hoffmann “Why Sin Matters or What is Heaven For?” pg xxvi the times that we choose to show our vulnerability seem to have become a competition to see who can be the ‘most’ vulnerable, the ‘most’ flawed; and so it feels less like a real examination and more like an exercise in increasing ‘likes’ and ‘followers.’ Just as there is very little ‘reality’ in ‘reality TV’, there is very little unbrushed and unpolished in our on-line presences. Despite this knowledge, there is still a part of us that believes what we see on-line to be true. As a result, the discomfort and challenges posed by the selfexamination of the High Holyday period are even more challenging and so we try to airbrush and avoid them too. The rationale being: ‘if we remove sin from the machzor, then we have a celebration of life, we have an affirmation of the good and shiny, and we are perfect.’ But we are not perfect, and growth and learning only come through struggle; through seeing and acknowledging the imperfections and working to make change. The word for ‘sin’ in Hebrew is ‘chet’, and it has a really interesting etymology. It is the term used in archery for missing the mark; it describes the act of aiming for the bullseye and missing. Unlike many of our notions of sin, Judaism teaches us that sin is straying from the path. It acknowledges that we aim for the bullseye but inevitably we will miss sometimes, and that is okay. It is human. Our tradition teaches that we aim for the good, we try to follow a right path, but sometimes we go astray; sometimes we make a mistake and we acknowledge that and try to do better next time. It does not have the heavy weight of the word ‘sin’ in English, but it does acknowledge that there is a right and wrong. And in order to grow, to become all we can be and create a better world, we need to be able to say that some actions are wrong, others are right; some behaviour is good and some is bad, and we have a right and a responsibility to recognise that and to state it. Rather than removing ‘sin’ from the machzor, we need to recognise it, and allow it to form part of our INSPIRING PRAYER prayer. To quote Rabbi Hoffmann again: “we dare not abandon the moral language of tradition, for it comes brimming with profundity. Abandoning the metaphorical reality of wrongful behaviour as sinful and righteous acts as blessing, withdraws all poetry from our world. Only a world replete with sin and 9
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TELL Magazine: October - November 2019

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