From the Rabbi's Desk

Rabbi Geoffrey L Shisler

I've always thought that one of the nicest things about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is the large number of people who come to Shul. There are lots of people who don't come during the year, unless it's for a special occasion, but they wouldn't dream of not coming on these occasions. And I like that!

Davening in a big crowd of people is so much nicer than davening with just a few. I find the services on Shabbat or Yom Tov morning much more enjoyable than those during the week. Lots of people davening together, singing together, is so much more uplifting than just ten or twelve.

Even though there are quite a number of people who come, even though they can't actually daven properly, I find that their presence in the Shul helps create a lovely atmosphere that can't be replicated when there are fewer present.

Praying communally is a very powerful concept in Judaism, and just being there to lend support to the others is also very important.

This is beautifully illustrated by an incident that happened to the Baal Shem Tov. He was once praying with a Minyan of his closest disciples. The Baal Shem Tov used to pray at great length and with great intensity, and his pupils would finish their prayers much earlier and then wait, sometimes for hours, for the Rebbe to finish. Once, he extended his prayers even longer than usual and the pupils grew tired of waiting, so they decided that each of them would go and see to his own affairs, and then come back to the Shul an hour later.

When they all got back, they saw that the Baal Shem Tov had still not finished his prayers, so they waited a while longer until he had finished. When he opened his eyes, he turned to them and told them that he was very upset with what they'd done. He said that they should never have left him alone to pray, and he told them the following story.

A man once spotted an unusually beautiful and exotic bird with feathers of every colour in the universe. It was perched right on the top of a very high tree that was clearly impossible to climb.

When the King heard about the bird, he decided that he wanted to have it, so he commanded that everyone in the land must come to this forest where the bird was and help capture it. He ordered that one should stand on the shoulders of the next until they were able to reach the beautiful bird, and then to bring it to him.

The amount of organisation in order to achieve this was very great, and very time consuming. After some considerable time, some of those who were at the bottom of the human ladder forgot what they were doing there in the first place. Being very tired and fed up with the whole project and the amount of time it was taking, they started to drift away. Obviously, within seconds of their disappearance, the whole ladder toppled to the ground, and those who had been on the top got badly injured when they fell to the ground.

The Baal Shem Tov explained that the same had happened to him when his pupils left him alone. While they were there, they were bound together with him in his prayer. But when they disbanded, each going his own separate way, he felt that everything fell away.

And the same is with us all when we come together to pray on the holiest days of the year. Even if you can't daven properly, the fact that you have come to be with your fellow-Jew is deeply significant and important. Your support is vital to help those who can daven better than you, to achieve the best atmosphere possible, in Shul.

I look forward to seeing you all over the coming festival days and, together with Anne, I pray that the Almighty will grant you, and all your loved ones, a wonderful, healthy, happy and peaceful 5762.