I’m Seth Grossman, speaking for Liberty and Prosperity. I am recording this message because this weekend, starting on sundown of Friday, September 11, is the two-day Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
I am Jewish and I observe the “high holiday.” That is why I will not be at the Liberty and Prosperity breakfast or on the radio this weekend. I instead will be in synagogue with my family.
The Rosh Hashanah holidat is described in the books of Leviticus and Numbers in the Old Testament of the Bible. However, there it is not called Rosh Hashanah, which means new year. It is instead described as Yom Teruah, the day for the sounding of the Shofar. When the Temple was standing in Jerusalem, it was a day when a ram’s horn was sounded calling on all Jews to assemble around the Temple. There they gave animals to the priests to be slaughtered and sacrificed at the Temple. They also sang psalms and praised God.
Rosh Hashanah, together with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement that comes ten days later, were also days when Jews also confessed their sins and prayed to God for forgiveness.
Of course, God can only forgive sins we commit against God. He cannot forgive sins we commit against other people or against ourselves.
The Jewish “high holidays” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are days of reflection. We think of how we hurt others during the past year. We ask them for forgiveness and think of ways we can behave better next year.
We also think of the mistakes we made that caused harm to ourselves . We think of how we can grow, and improve and avoid those mistakes in the year ahead.
That is why Jews don’t say “Happy New Year” for Rosh Hashanah. We usually say “L’Shanah Tova”, which is short for saying, “May you be written for a good year.”
The Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament of the Bible call Jews the “Chosen People.” But we were not chosen to be superior to anyone. God did not choose us to rule over anyone else. We were chosen to live by a set of 613 laws and rules that are written in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament of the Bible.
At Mount Sinai, the freed Hebrew slaves made a covenant, or contract with God. According to that contract, Jews agreed to live by God’s laws, and God agreed to let us live safe and comfortable lives in a “Promised Land” of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Last year I wrote a book called 1676 Project, How New Jersey Shaped America. In it, I explain how New Jersey established in 1676 in much the same way.
Quakers, who were persecuted in England, came to Salem and Burlington here in South Jersey to create their own commonwealth. It was also based on the rules and values set forth in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The most fundamental law was the Christian Golden Rule of “Our Blessed Savior”: “Do unto others as you would have others do and to you.” The Jewish Rabbi Hillel gave that same instruction.
Jews and Israel thrived when they kept their covenant and followed those laws. They suffered when they did not. The same can be said about America.
There is an old Jewish saying that goes, “What happens to the world, happens to the Jews first.”
Jews are going through difficult times right now. Not all, but many of our problems were created by our own sins.
There are 8 billion people in the world. There are 2.6 billion Christians, 2 billion Muslims, and 1 billion Hindus. There are only 15 million Jews. We are only 0.2% of the world’s population. About 7 million Jews in Israel and about 6 million in America.
However, Jews are rapidly disappearing in America. You see that here in Atlantic City. When I grew up here in the 1960s, we had about 11 vibrant Synagogues. We had Beth El, Beth Israel, and Beth Jacob in the Inlet, We had Rodef Sholem and a Sephardic (Spanish and Hebrew language) synagogue for Jews from Syria and Lebanon on Pacific Avenue in midtown. We had the Chelsea Synagogue, in Chelsea, Beth Judah in Ventnor, and three synagogues in Margate. All of these synagogues had Hebrew schools and Sunday schools with lots of kids.
Now you have only a handful of synagogues. There are hardly any kids in Hebrew schools. Most of their members are aging Boomers like me. Most struggle to get a minyon of ten people at most services—even by counting women.
This is all a direct result of ignoring many important Bible commandments, starting with Commandment Number One: Get married and have children.
And of course, there is the vital commandment that parents “diligently” teach their children of the laws our ancestors were given at Mount Sinai and of God’s miracles that brought them there.
Sadly, most churches in the area are having the same problems. That is why America is also in decline.
However, the situation is not hopeless. There is still time to teach ourselves the Jewish and Christian values that our parents and grandparents lived by.
There is still time to understand that these values are based on eternal truths that made lives better for millions of people for thousands of years.
The Ten Commandments. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
These values are what led to the American idea that we are all created equal and are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
These values brought 300 years of liberty and prosperity to America starting in 1676.
It is not too late. But we must understand them and use the years we have left to start teaching them to our children and grandchildren now.
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