Time to believe in your Yiddishe neshama

The winds of the month of Elul are upon us, and Rosh Hashanah can be felt in the air. Many of us are busy preparing our guest list and booking our seats in shul. The more spiritually entuned are spending these days of slichot (penitence) in spiritual preparation with a sneak peek of the Machzor.

The Rosh Hashanah Machzor is the book of prayers, poems, and psalms that we read through yom tov. Sometimes we can get lost in the depth of the unfamiliar texts and wonder about. It can be quite daunting at times to follow along with the chazzan.

I’m reminded of a story of the veteran Chassid Rebbe Mendel Futerfas. He spent many years in a harsh labour camp in Siberia for defying communist rule. Being a pious Jew, he tried and somehow managed to keep mitzvot there to the very best of his ability.

Along came Rosh Hashanah. He played sick, and lay in bed the whole day, davening whatever he could remember by heart. But then he came to musaf, and began humming the tune to the famous poem V’chol Maaminim (And all believe). He couldn’t continue. He just lay there thinking, do all Jews really believe? What about those that don’t? What about the ones that caused me to end up here, do they really believe? Reb Mendel needed to muster up some hidden courage to continue through this beautiful but now hard-to-swallow poem.

Yom Kippur came, and this time he needed to work, so he did chores that weren’t halachically deemed work. And he davened as he went about his duties. Suddenly, Ivan appeared. Ivan was the scariest guard at the camp. The mere mention of his name could send shivers down one’s spine. Ivan was the symbol of the jackboot.

He approached Reb Mendel with a deep, penetrating gaze. “You fast today, rabbi?”

“Ah, yes, Ivan.”

“I fast too, rabbi. I saw you pray last week. I realised it was Rosh Hashanah. I counted 10 days, and know that today is Yom Kippur.” Ivan walked off in a huff, and Reb Mendel sang V’chol Maaminim with more fervour than ever before.

This story teaches us about the pintele Yid, the quintessential Jewish soul that is inextinguishable. Unfortunately, sometimes our belief isn’t translated into action. We essentially are all believers, but when it comes to crunch time, we can often struggle with the performance of a mitzvah.

When Rosh Hashanah comes around, we are given another opportunity to reawaken the Yiddishe neshama and renew our commitment to Judaism and the Jewish people. We can tap into the beauty of the yom tov prayers and find the ones that speak most to us.

Let’s maximise the opportunity, and surely, we will be blessed with a happy and healthy new year.

• Rabbi Levi Silman is a rabbinical co-ordinator for Kosher SA.