The Work of Our Hands - Shabbat Shuvah

A huge thank you to everyone who made our Rosh Hashanah services so special. It was a remarkable beginning to the year, and from here we build. Rachel Rose Reid will be back for Yom Kippur (starting a little earlier than advertised in the ticket – at 10:30am, to finish before the Yizkor sermon). Alex Games will be leading a post-Kol Nidrei conversation, in the Hall after services on Tuesday evening. And Dr Aviva Dautch will be sharing teachings in the Hall in the afternoon. There will be a Rabbi’s Q&A for me. And, of course, Chazan Stephen and I will be leading services in our beautiful sanctuary. I’m excited to build on the extraordinary energy of our New Year services.

This Shabbat takes its name from the opening word of the Haftarah, and the theme of the season, ‘Shabbat Shuva’ – the Sabbath of Return. The Haftarah opens with verses from Hosea, including this image;

“Nor will we say again to the work of our hands, “[you are] our God.”

It’s possible to read this prophecy narrowly – idol manufacturers make idols and idol worshippers foolishly imbue these hand-made icons with greater power than simple clay or metal. That’s an error Hosea sees ceasing in the world post ‘Return.’ That’s the commentary of Abarbanel, writing in fifteenth-century Portugal.

But one can also read this phrase far more broadly. Calling the work of our hands, ‘our God’ is a metaphor for any over-presumption of our own power. And we are always over-presuming our own power. We achieve things, we think we are divine. But the call to return is to the call to be more humble. The works of our hands are humdrum. Our fate is not in our hands. This, I think is how Maimonides reads this verse when he cites it in his definition of Teshuvah. For Maimonides, Teshuvah entails the acknowledgement of power outside our understanding, and his prooftext is this image. On this Shabbat, with Yom Kippur just around the corner, this image seems to presage one of the great sung-prayers of the season, ‘Ki Hinei KaChomer – For we are like clay in the hands of the potter.’ It’s not that we are making gods, its that we are creations, exquisite and remarkable, but fragile and limited.

Shabbat Shalom

Gemar Chatimah Tovah,