The coming Jewish
New Year, Ten Days of
Repentance, and Day of
Article Photos
Rabbi Selwyn Geller
Atonement (9/17 to
9/26), make me wonder
about the link that my
ancestors forged between
creation on the Head of
the Year and our failure
to be creative in the individual
and communal
requirements for repentance
and atonement.
These are not just
Jewish links. They are
human links. We have
religious and secular
ideals of creation to form
a more perfect union in
social life and society
outside of our nation and
the people of the United States in our
nation. There are practical blocks to
creativity in us as individuals and in
our political environment.
These blocks have, unfortunately,
gridlocked our nation. They cause economic
and social disconnections in its
relations to other nations.
The coincidence of New Year and
this presidential election year in the
United States parallels the links about
which I wonder and give me the time
that I need to be prudent about my
health, safety, and morals. They are
aspects of my life over which I exercise
some measure, but incomplete authority
and responsibility, and religions and
politics also exercise authority and
responsibility.
I do not always assimilate the creative
findings of the applied arts and
sciences into my life effectively. I fumble
with my computers and I-Phone,
and do not know how to use them as
intended. Our nation and other nations
do not always assimilate the creative
findings of the applied arts and sciences
into their structures and functions efficiently.
I always forgive
myself, but usually blame
politics for being inefficient
and ineffective.
Watching my favorite
programs on television, I
think what a wonderful
invention it is. Confined
to my bed after surgery
for a few weeks and
watching daytime TV for
long stretches, I thought
how this wonderful
invention is used for purposes
that I do not favor.
It can be used to improve
education. The best
teachers in the world can
teach both theoretical and
practical subjects across
national boundaries and
make education truly individual and
social.
Instead, television socializes our
children and us to have the same
desires and interests as everyone else. It
does not inspire our children and us to
be creative, equal and unique adults. It
is not geared toward the good of our
posterity. It is geared toward our present
favorites.
Current events help me appreciate
the link that my ancestors forged
between the religious ideal of creation
and the individual and communal needs
for repentance and atonement. Not just
current events in the sense of news help
me to appreciate this, but also current
events in terms of the potentialities of
our children and posterity with technology
and science that make religion and
politics awesome and serviceable to us
in Sanibel Island, Florida, in our nation,
and in the larger society of which they
and we are parts.
Rabbi Selwyn Geller leads Bat
Yam-Temple of the Islands
