The Pregnant Dreams of Rosh Hashanah

I’ve always been drawn to the Scriptural readings on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Dreaming of the possibility of a child, Abraham and Sarah bear a child, Isaac, who is now a younger brother to Hagar’s child, Ishmael. The Haftarah reinforces the message with an exploration of the birth of Samuel to Elkanah and Penina. These children make life complex, and they advance the rich unfolding of God’s covenant with the children of Israel.

The Musaf service describes Rosh Hashanah as “ha-yom harat olam” conventionally translated as “today is the birthday of the world.” But the Hebrew can also be construed as “today is eternally pregnant.” What would it mean to look at the cosmos as always engaged in preparation for birthing? A new potential, a new possibility, a more expansive and inclusive reality? These are all dormant and contained by the protective structure of the New Year, waiting to be ready, to come into existence.

And we have a role to play in bringing that reality to fruition. As we nurture the living and cherish the planet, we prep for the novelty about to be born. We begin our lives, each of us, as someone’s dream. And then as we move through life, we reach a point in which we dream up others, and those who dreamed us become sheltered in our dreams in turn. Life/dream/life/dream, we ascend through endless cycles toward an ever more intense reality.

As we nurture the living and cherish the planet, we prep for the novelty about to be born. We begin our lives, each of us, as someone’s dream.

As we curve into 5785, may this holy season birth a time of greater peace, deeper spirit, more vital learning, more grateful living.

Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson, a Contributing Writer for The Jewish Journal, holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean’s Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles. He is also  rabbinic leader of the Abraham Heschel Seminary in Potsdam, Germany ordaining Conservative/Masorti Rabbis for Europe.