From Rabbi Craig Mayers

August / September 2021

Der mensch tracht, un Gott lacht​

If you’re not up on your Yiddish, this expression translates to “People plan, God laughs”.  That about sums up the past year and a half, and also applies right here and now.  My last bulletin message talked about how we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, and things were looking up.  As I write this message, we find ourselves in a new wave of infection and a return to protective measures for public safety and health. 
So does that mean we shouldn’t plan?  Isn’t Rosh Hashanah and the whole High Holiday season about making plans for the coming year?  We plan to improve ourselves, work on our relationships, do more to connect us with our Judaism – is Hashem really laughing at these plans?  Or perhaps it’s more about our expectations.  So how can we or should we adjust our expectations this coming New Year?  Is there such a thing as too much planning?​

There is a parable, a story in which a Hassidic master asked his disciples: “What is the most significant moment in all of Jewish history? In all the experience of the Jewish people, what stands out as paramount? The students answered: “The crossing of the Red Sea?  Giving of the Torah on Sinai?  The conquest of Jerusalem?” “No.” taught the master. “The most important moment in all Jewish history is right now.”  In the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, we encounter the stirring prayer “Hayom” – “Today”.  We ask Hashem “hayom t’varchenu” – bless us today.  In another part of the service we say “Hayom harat olam” – today is the birthday of the world.  That word “hayom” – “today” - permeates our High Holiday prayers.

One of the lessons of the High Holidays perhaps is to focus more on today and plan out our lives a little bit less.  Maybe we should be a bit more like the GPS apps we use, because they can recalibrate and reroute on the fly when conditions change.  Nowadays they even incorporate live crowd-sourced traffic conditions and will always tell you the best way to get where you are going.  Well, most of the time they do.  But the point to be taken here is that we need to be flexible.  We may think we have mapped out our futures, but we need to be ready to re-route at a moment’s notice!

​As we pray for guidance and blessing (and health!) in the New Year to come, we need to remember that not a single one of our lives ever goes according to plan.  We all encounter obstacles and things “out of left field” that change our plans without warning.  But we also need to remember the words of the prophet Jeremiah, who tells us that Hashem is a planner too.  He has plans for us, and they’re good: “For I am mindful of the plans I have made concerning you—declares the LORD—plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a hopeful future.”  (Jer. 29:11).  May this be so for all of us in this New Year of 5782 and always.  From my family to yours, L’shana Tovah!
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Rabbi Craig Mayers
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