Rabbis are supposed to give an extra long sermon on the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, known (for its Haftorah) as Shabbos Shuva. The way we do it here at UAlbany is to create a composite Shabbos Shuva drasha, with many of those here for Shabbat lunch chiming in, participating and sharing, so that our cumulative “drasha” is indeed lengthier (and richer) than usual.
First a starting thought(s) by Rabbi Mendel Rubin, a prompt if you will.
We experienced two things this week, both life lessons, both can be illustrative of two different forms of Teshuvah (repentacne, or better as Rebbe prefers: return).
THE ROBOT COUPE RESET
Last week our Robot-Coupe died. It’s a powerful reliable and durable commercial food processor that is a staple in our kitchen. Given that it stopped working, we looked at repair estimates at service places, and explored replacements. It served us well, worked for a long long time, and was 10X better (or more) than any of the many food processors we’ve gone through before.
A few days later Raizy realized something. Our commercial mixer has a reset button in back. Sometimes the appliance shuts down when it overheats, but if you give it time and press the reset button it comes back to life. Perhaps the Robot-Coupe had a similar feature? She looked all around the device, and then found the reset button underneath the appliance. She pressed it, and lo and behold – it came back to life and started working again!
Over the years, the most common thing students have said they liked about Yom Kippur was the reset, the clean slate, the fresh start. They liked the cleansing feeling of forgiveness to restart anew.
FIGHTING FOR EXTRA YARDS
Aside for the reset, there are other forms of Teshuva (repentance/return). Sometimes Teshiva isn’t a total reset, but pushing ourselves further. Going beyond our comfort zone.
This week I got to watch a football game with the guys. While the Giants lost miserably to the 49ers (though they held their respectable own in the first half) there was a powerful Teshuva takeaway in one of the plays. A player catches the ball, and is immediately rushed to be tackled by several opponent players. They were already all over him. But he somehow persisted, pushed his way through, fought them off admirably, and squeezed out some more yardage out of it. In life we often feel that we made a catch and can call it a play. No reason to fight and kick and push our way for a few more “yards”. Especially when we’re being tugged at and pulled down, and outnumbered. Why bother?
This, too, can be a form of Teshuvah. To persist, to persevere, to push and forge ahead even with odds against us and overwhelmed by things that pull us down and hold us back. Pushing forward under such adversity, under such duress, is in itself a win, even if its only for a few more yards gained.
So we asked students to share thoughts/inspiration/example of either a Reset-type Teshuva, or the pushing-limits-type, or combinations of both. Below are what we remember after Shabbos, perhaps to fill in more later as we’re reminded of more:
STUDENTS SHARING AT COMPOSITE SHABBOS SHUVA
Noah M: I just did a paper on the impacts of Covid and online learning and about the transition back to in-person learning. It’s a reset but also gradual and with changes from the way it was before.
Hannah D: Everyone can use a reset. Sometimes its just taking a little time for yourself amidst the hectic pressures of a day, collecting yourself, taking care of yourself so you can be refreshed and strong enough and have the right mindset to start again.
Emily B: Sometimes the first test of a class/program you take doesn’t turn out the way you wanted, but it can be a learning experience to better or differently prepare for the next test. It resets you, helps you push forward.
David – since you mentioned football. I was in a game where the other team was doing some stuff that we didn’t appreciate so it took some self-control and restraint to take the moral high ground, and that too, is a Teshuva. It’s kinda like the pushing for football yardage when you’re being tackled and heckled and pressured, but instead of pressing forward, it’s about holding back.
Nate – sometimes all it takes is to shut down and restart your computer. It usually solves a lot of issues unless something more complicated is going on.
Matt. Here’s an interesting thing about the Reset button on a Wii. It also auto restarts. Reset doesn’t just get us back to neutral. It gets us going again.
Yoni S. reset!? No reset for me! My thing is just to keep on going! Keep on going is challenge and accomplishment enough! No reset needed!
Ari K. Along with reset, we also need to reflect. Not enough to just reset. We need to realize and recognize the past and future,
Ben M.
Sam B. going home for Rosh Hashanah was a nice reset for me. Family is grounding for me, and going home after a busy first month of the year, which sometimes can get a little rocky and rough, was a really nice reset to come back with and start anew and refreshed.
Jordan R: Shabbos is a weekly reset. It refreshes and invigorates our week. It’s a step back that helps us restart anew.
Jason F. Too many people already spoke about reset.
Nicole: Each morning is (or can be) a refreshing reset!