Prepare the Way
080914 sp by Rabbi Paul Falk. We hear this phrase quite often, especially as we go into the High Holy Days and the season we are going into. “Prepare the Way for Yahweh.” Prepare the way, prepare the way. … and I think if I were to give out a quiz, that wasn’t multiple choice and ask “What does it mean?” we all would give a good two to three (2-3) paragraphs, well I think it could be this, I think it could be that, but I think we would be not completely confident, a little insecure about the exact meaning of it. I’m not here to say it is exactly this, but what I want to do is cover a little bit. To some degree today becomes a little bit of review of what these high holy days are. Right now is a great time to go to Leviticus 23, and start reading through, so what are the days that are coming, what are the expectations? …and how do I prepare myself. So, how do we prepare the way? How do we do that. As we come to the Holy Days, the first High Holy Day is Yom Teruah. Teruah means to blow or a great noise, yom just means day. So of course we are going to have traditionally a trumpets blast. It could just be a scream. If you remember in regard to Jericho, they did the shofar blast cause they walked around the city, and after they did the shofar blast, what did they do, for those walls to come falling down. There was a huge shout. While it could mean a trumpet blast, it means a loud noise. This trumpet blast, hold on to that. So then, that is followed by Yom Kippur, a lot of people think that Yom Kippur is the climax of the season meaning everything is in preparation for Yom Kippur, to be honest Yom Kippur is a portal to actually get you ready for what is most important. But you can’t get to the feast…Yom Kippur by the way is not a feast, it’s a Holy Day, where you afflict the soul, you make atonement, which means make a covering before Yahweh. Which means I am going to go before Him which means my covering is correct and right before Yahweh…it’s a portal to get you to the feast…..
