Rosh Hashana: The Ultimate Sacrifice - Harry Rothenberg Esq.

one of the most difficult stories to understand in all of human history occurs in chapter 11 of the book of judges shoften we're told about yfta who's booted from his home by his half brothers takes up with a bunch of ruffians but then the jews in his old town are in trouble and so they come to him he's a pretty powerful guy and they say listen we've got a very strong enemy we need you and he says all right i'll do this but it's not going to be a one-off if i win i'm the leader going forward they have no choice they say okay and so he takes over and he prays to god before the big battle and he says god if you deliver the enemy into my hand i'm taking a vow the first thing when i get home that comes out to greet me will be for you i'll bring it as a sacrifice he wins the war he comes home and the first thing that comes out to greet him is his daughter his only child is to break the news to her most commentators say that he didn't end up killing her as a sacrifice god forbid but she did have to live the rest of her life in seclusion couldn't get married the question of course is what was he thinking you want to bring a sacrifice great to see the first animal that comes out of my house to greet me or just walks out or that i see will be a carbon will be a sacrifice why say the first thing that comes out of my house to greet me which can include animal or human i heard a great explanation once he knew what his relationship was with his wife and in particular with his only daughter he knows what's going to happen he's going to come home like he always does he's going to yell up to his daughter whatever her name was let's make one up leia leia i'm home no answer leia i'm home no answer eventually she'll take the headphones off of her head yeah dad i'm home maybe come downstairs and say hello uh i'm busy dad i'm filming a tick tock video or whatever he knows one thing there's no way there's no possibility that she's going to come out to greet him let alone the way she's described she came out to greet him dancing with drums big celebration how excited how could that be in his mind it wasn't possible they didn't have that type of relationship she wouldn't give the time of day let alone come out to greet him with dances and drums what happened was which he didn't account for what she didn't realize could happen is that she's at home and if it was nowadays what happened was in effect her phone blew up the internet broke her father is no longer a bad boy ruffian and nobody he's a conquering war hero he's the general they're making a parade for him down main street wow i gotta go out to greet him for the first time ever so it wasn't a possibility in his mind that's why he made the vow that way he didn't realize he was a new better improved person what a lesson on the eve of rosh hashanah eve of the high holidays when we're about to crown god as the king recognize that it's up to him if we're going to live another year and our judgment's coming soon after on yom kippur we can say to him god i'm asking you for another year not for the old me but for the new me that i'm determined to be i'm not sure yet how i'm going to do it it'll be small steps small increments but i'm determined to be better same reason why people will say why should i keep praying for something for days weeks months years on end if god's not giving it to me and the answer is because if you continue to improve while you pray then each day the person asking for that item was not the same person who asked yesterday and so let's make that commitment at a minimum even if it's just expressing the sincere desire in our own heads i want to be better god give me another chance give me another year that's laha good luck to all of us this rosh hashanah hopefully we'll all have a much happier and much healthier new year this year [Music] you