But, he asks, “Is it better to just frolic around the garden like a bunny… unaware and simple but happy?” To face our powers and weaknesses is, in many ways, to be unhappy. One of my students studying the creation story talks about the eating of the fruit in the Garden of Eden as taking away our happiness because we became aware of all of the problems and possibilities of our world when we ate it. Personally I think we all are often kind of happy and kind of not. Being happy or not seems too black and white for me, too two-dimensional. And what does being “happy” even mean? It’s not the same as present or content. Good or sweet might just be improvement or going in the right direction. Depending on what has gone on in one’s life during the prior year, a good year or a sweet year may not necessarily lead to happiness, and it certainly won’t lead to happiness all the time.
To me, what may be good or sweet doesn’t have to come with the pressure of making us happy. My question for you is the following: is good or sweet the same as happy? Of course, I have another interpretation to add, and it fits perfectly into the New Year’s theme.īe it the secular New Year or the spiritual New Year of Rosh Hashanah, we often say to each other (when using English), “Happy new year.” During Rosh Hashanah, however, when we greet one another in Hebrew with Shanah Tovah Umetukah, we wish each other a good and sweet year. Another idea is that God is hovering near Pharaoh all the time, so God is asking Moses to come to where God is already present. In my research, I found that most commentators agree that in God’s telling Moses to come, and not go, God is present with Moses during his interactions with Pharaoh, so God is really saying “come with me” to Pharoah. Why would God say, “Come to Pharaoh” rather than “Go”? It’s a fun puzzle to try to solve. Rarely does a translation say “come to Pharoah,” but that is what it actually says, and many have wrestled with the fact that the word is confusing in its use. You may have noticed that I translated bo as go, even though I just said it means come. During Parshat Bo, where we experience the final three plagues, God tells Moses to go ( bo) to Pharaoh. Our Torah portion this week is Parshat “Bo”, which means come. For those of you who missed it, I hope you enjoy my talk for that Shabbat. Since Cool Shul hosts a Shabbat service only once per month, last Friday was our “New Year’s” Shabbat.
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