Pregnant with Possibility
Rosh Hashana Morning 5769
Rabbi Mark Strauss-Cohn
I remember once speaking with relatives of mine in Israel about a woman who was
pregnant. I announced that she was “m’u-beret”. What? And they started laughing. I had
recently learned that when we have an extra month in our Jewish calendar, the year is
called a shanah m’uberet – a pregnant year, so I assumed this term was used for women
as well. Turns out it is used for months and farm animals. Whoops. The term for a
woman who is pregnant is b’heirah-yone. I never forgot the proper word.
Today, after one of the series of blasts of the shofar, we will sing out: 'Hayom
Harat Olam'! Today is the birthday of the world. So says the translation according to
most readings. But let’s look more closely at these words, to see what they can teach us:
hayom harat olam. ‘Harah’ means pregnancy, conception or gestation. ‘Ebur’, by the
way, means to make pregnant – as in the use with years and animals. The root of the
word Harah (pregnant) is Hey, Reish, Hey. This root is remarkably close to the root for
teaching (Yud. Reish. Hey.) from which we derive the word Torah). Harah, we should
note, means not birth, but the process which leads up to birth. ‘Olam’ can mean world,
but if we wanted to say "the conception of the world," we would say "harat ha-olam."
(not simply harat olam). 'Olam' really means eternity, from the root that means "hidden,"
or more precisely, the infinite that is hidden, that is, beyond our limited perception. As in
l’olam – which we translate as ‘forever’.
If we wanted to say "the birth of the world" we would say "yaldat ha'olam." A
colleague of mine at the Shalom Center in Philadelphia, Rabbi David Seidenberg, wrote
in a post this past month about this term harat olam and came up with a brilliant
translation. He said: 'Harat Olam' means very literally, “pregnant with eternity”, or
“eternally pregnant” (which for a woman – or her family – would not necessarily be a
good thing). Rabbi Seidenberg’s chiddush – his new idea that he brings to the table is in
translating this ancient phrase not as “Today is the birthday of the world” but rather
“Today is pregnant with eternity.”
Hayom harat olam. Today is pregnant with eternity.
There is a lot of pregnancy (or lack thereof) happening in our scriptural readings
today. Sarah is barren and then Hagar gets pregnant. Finally, Sarah becomes pregnant. In
the haftarah reading Hannah is barren and then she gets pregnant. These three women are
all critical in the future of our people and all seem to have a direct connection with God
in order to understand what is happening in their lives. That the rabbis of old chose these
readings as our scriptural readings for Rosh Hashana is surely not without meaning.
I would like to pose that their being read on this New Year’s Day relates to that
translation of today being not merely the birthday of the world but rather a moment
pregnant with possibility. For this holiday is not on just any day of the month. It happens
to be on the first day of the month, on a new moon, which is Rosh Hodesh, the day on
which women celebrate their reproductive cycle and give voice to the very power that lies
within them, in concert with man and God, to become pregnant with possibility and give
life and thus hope and a future.
The stories of Hagar, Sarah and Hannah are vital for us on this day. Their
pregnancies lead to the births of Ishmael, Isaac and Samuel, respectively. While
important women in their own right, their sons literally lead lives of biblical proportion.
Ishmael becomes the father of a people. Isaac serves as the vital bridge to Jacob who will
become Israel and the father of our 12 tribes. And Samuel is the last of the judges, who
will anoint the first king – Saul, followed by David, as monarchs over Israel. While each
woman knew the importance of their pregnancies, their pregnancy stories fill tomes of
Jewish literature and are the material which help us understand our very existence.
Their fertility – or lack thereof – were moments pregnant with possibility and I
believe are read on this day in order to remind us that no one pregnancy – no one child,
mother, father, or sibling is without consequence. Every one of us matters and can make a
difference if we but see that pregnancy is eternal and on this day of the New Year, we
celebrate the latent possibility in each of us to give birth to eternal values.
Hayom harat olam. This day is pregnant with possibility because from this
moment comes every future moment. Today, we stand upon the precipice of eternity,
looking out into the year to come and we note the wondrous and miraculous creation that
is before us. This moment at the top of 5769 is “eternally pregnant”, always bringing
forth new lives and new olamim – worlds. We see before us the infinite in the finite, the
world in a grain of sand, a child’s grasp, a caterpillar’s transformation, a leaf unfolding.
What greater potential in this moment, than for it to be “pregnant with insights, with
hopes, as great as eternity”? It is as unbounded as the hidden secrets of every gestation
and every birth. It is like the show on HGTV that takes tired old homes and gives them
new life: we have HIDDEN POTENTIAL all around us.
The world is ours to decide what we want to make of it. Although I have been
known to say, “B’ezrat hashem” Or “God willing” on occasion, I know deep down that
this world is ours to decide what we want to make of it. God wills it because we turn our
hearts to will it. Sarah, Hagar and Hannah became pregnant, according to the biblical
writers because it was when God ordained it. I agree – as long as we define God as
“propitious moments”. We are not doing God’s will when we make war. We are not
doing God’s will when we are destroying the planet: from coral reefs in the South Pacific
to mountaintops in West Virginia. We must decide how we want this world to look and
how we want to be remembered – by God, by our children, and by generations yet unborn
who will write our history into books. This moment is pregnant with possibility. We need
to be careful.
Around the Jewish world right now, after the shofar is blasted, Jews have been, are
and will be singing and responding: “Hayom Harat Olam!” because we recognize that
this moment, this day, this year, this world, gives us a new chance to pause and reflect on
what the Kabbalah calls the “or ein sof,” the infinite light which filled the beginning of
creation with loving-kindness. This light shines in the radiance of this earth, the womb of
all life, which is eternally pregnant, and which constantly brings forth life as the Rabbi
Schneur Zalman of Liadi spoke nearly two centuries ago. (Tanya, Igeret Hakodesh 20)
Every time we hear the shofar, it gives us a moment where we can, if we choose, to
reflect on what we are doing to this earth, our home, the very womb of humanity.
Soon we will hear the sound of the shofar. The requirement of the shofar is that it
must be curved, spiral, like a ram’s horn, and not straight like an antelope’s horn. It
teaches us to turn back towards what is right, to return to the precipice. And it reminds us
of the spiral of life – the double helix of DNA, the spiral dance that leads to this earth,
these species, this humanity, and on to whatever comes after us. Listen: we are not the
end of this dance, nor the beginning, but an essential link in a chain that goes from
creation to redemption. Let the sound of the shofar penetrate long after it has gone silent.
The voice of the shofar is most penetrating after our ba’al tekiyah has left the bima. Its
effect is deepest when you answer the question it calls to mind: What do you hear in the
shofar and what role do you want to play in this world?
“Hayom harat olam.” Today is pregnant with eternity. Today births new
intentions, conceives new possibilities. Hagar, Sarah, and Hannah had no way to know
how long their chain into history would stretch. We are a part of that lineage and hope.
Today is our day, today we are alive on this planet, "Chayim kulchem hayom." Today our
choices will gestate the future, for our children, and for the children of every species
upon the earth.
“Hayom, t’amtzeinu, hayom!” Today, may you find courage. May you be blessed
and may we go on to do great things with this moment that is filled with potential.