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Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year Holiday. · Seth Grossman – Liberty and Prosperity

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  - I'm Seth Grossman speaking for Liberty and Prosperity.
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  - I'm recording this message because this weekend,
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  - starting on sundown on Friday, September 11,
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  - is the two day Jewish holiday of Rosh
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  - Hashanah,
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  - the Jewish New Year.
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  - I'm Jewish,
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  - so I won't be at the Liberty and
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  - Prosperity breakfast or on the radio this weekend.
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  - I'll instead be in synagogue with my family.
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  - The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah is described
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  - in the books of Leviticus and Numbers in
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  - the Old Testament of the Bible.
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  - However, it's not called Rosh Hashanah, which means
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  - New Year there.
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  - It's instead described as Yom Teruah,
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  - the day for the sounding of the shofar.
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  - When the temple stood in Jerusalem, it was
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  - a day when a ram's horn was sounded,
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  - calling on all Jews to assemble around the
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  - temple.
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  - There, they gave animals to the priest to
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  - be slaughtered and sacrificed at the temple.
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  - They also sang Psalms and praised God.
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  - Rosh Hashanah together with Yom Kippur,
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  - the day of atonement that comes ten days
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  - later,
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  - were also times when Jews confessed their sins
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  - and prayed to God for forgiveness.
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  - Of course, God can only forgive sins we
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  - commit to God.
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  - He can forgive sins we commit to other
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  - people or to ourselves.
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  - So the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah
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  - and Yom Kippur are times of reflection.
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  - It is a time for Jews to think
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  - of how we hurt others during the past
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  - year.
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  - We ask them for forgiveness
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  - and think of ways to do better next
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  - year.
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  - We also think of mistakes we made that
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  - hurt ourselves.
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  - We think of how we can do better
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  - in the year ahead.
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  - That's why Jews don't say happy new year
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  - for Rosh Hashanah.
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  - We instead say,
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  - which is short for saying, may you be
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  - written for a good year.
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  - The Old Testament books of Exodus and Deuteronomy
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  - call Jews the chosen people,
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  - but Jews were not chosen to be superior
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  - to anyone
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  - or to rule over anyone.
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  - Jews were chosen to live by a set
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  - of 613
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  - laws and rules that are written in the
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  - first five books of the Old Testament of
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  - the Bible.
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  - They are called the Torah or Torah.
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  - At Mount Sinai,
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  - the freed Hebrew slaves made a covenant or
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  - contract with God.
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  - According to that contract,
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  - Jews agreed to live by God's laws, and
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  - God agreed to let Jews live safe and
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  - comfortable lives in a promised land flowing with
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  - milk and honey.
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  - Last year, I wrote a history book called
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  - 1676
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  - project,
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  - how New Jersey shaped America.
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  - In it, I explained how New Jersey was
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  - established in 1676
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  - in much the same way.
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  - Quakers who were persecuted in England
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  - came to Salem and Burlington here in South
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  - Jersey
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  - to create their own commonwealth.
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  - It was also based on the rules and
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  - values set forth in the bible.
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  - The most fundamental law
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  - was the Jewish and Christian golden rule.
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  - Do unto others as you would have others
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  - do unto you.
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  - Jews and Israel
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  - thrived when they kept their covenant and followed
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  - those laws.
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  - They suffered when they did not.
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  - The same can be said about Christians in
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  - America.
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  - There's an old Jewish saying that goes, what
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  - happens to the world,
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  - happens to the Jews first.
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  - Jews are going through very difficult times right
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  - now. We're paying the price for committing plenty
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  - of sins.
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  - There are 8,000,000,000 people in the world.
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  - There are two and a half billion Christians,
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  - 2,000,000,000 Muslims, and 1,000,000,000 Hindus.
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  - There are only 15,000,000
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  - Jews. That's 0.2
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  - of the world population.
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  - About 7,000,000 Jews live in Israel, and 6,000,000
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  - live in America.
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  - However, Jews are rapidly disappearing in America.
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  - You can see that here in Atlantic City.
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  - When I grew up here in the nineteen
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  - sixties,
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  - we had about 11 thriving synagogues.
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  - We had Bethel, Beth Israel, and Beth Jacob
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  - in the Inlet.
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  - We had and
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  - a Sephardic synagogue for Jews from Syria and
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  - Lebanon
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  - on Pacific Avenue in Midtown.
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  - We had the Chelsea synagogue in Chelsea, Beth
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  - Judah in Ventnor,
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  - and three synagogues in Margate.
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  - All those synagogues had Hebrew schools and Sunday
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  - schools with lots of kids.
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  - Now you only have a handful of synagogues,
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  - and there are hardly any kids in Hebrew
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  - schools.
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  - Most members are aging boomers like me. Most
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  - struggle to get a traditional minion of 10
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  - men at most services,
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  - and most have trouble getting a quorum of
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  - 10 people
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  - even when women are counted.
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  - This is all a direct result of not
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  - following many important bible commandments,
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  - starting with commandment number one,
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  - get married and have children.
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  - And, of course, there's the vital commandment that
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  - parents diligently teach their children.
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  - Sadly, most churches in the area are having
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  - the same problems.
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  - That is why America is also in decline.
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  - However, the situation is not hopeless.
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  - There's still time to teach ourselves the Jewish
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  - and Christian values that our parents and grandparents
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  - live by.
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  - There's still time to understand that these values
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  - are based on eternal truth
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  - that made lives better for millions of people
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  - for thousands of years.
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  - The 10 commandments,
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  - love your neighbor as yourself,
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  - do unto others as you would have them
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  - do unto you.
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  - These values led to the American idea that
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  - we're all created equal and all endowed by
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  - our creator with certain unalienable rights, and that
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  - among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
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  - of happiness.
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  - These values brought three hundred years of liberty
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  - and prosperity to America
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  - starting in 1676.
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  - It's not too late to bring this back,
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  - but we are running out of time.
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  - We, boomers, need to use the years we
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  - have left to start teaching this to our
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  - children and grandchildren.