Cast off the old to put on the new

By Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, Temple Israel

I’d like to share one of my favorite short stories with you. It is based on the custom that when one Jewish person sees another Jewish person with something new, such as a new piece of clothing, he would say to the other, titchadesh, may you be renewed.

Once there was a Jewish man who lived in a small shtetl, or town, who came to a city for the first time. When he arrived there, everyone stared at him because his clothes were shabby. Immediately the man went to a store in town and bought himself a beautiful new suit, thinking that when people would see him in his new clothing, they would wish him titchadesh, may you be renewed.

However, when the man returned home and put his suit on, to his dismay he discovered that it did not fit. Not only that, but the suit looked absolutely terrible.  Quite upset, the man from the shtetl rushed back to the store full of angry complaints.

But after hearing all that this customer had to say, the clerk began to laugh.

Finally he turned and said to the man, “Of course it doesn’t fit! You put this new suit on over your old clothes! You must take off the old before you can put on the new!”

At this time of year, we are reminded that the High Holy Days are about renewal. In Ezekiel 18:31 we are told to cast away all transgressions by which we have offended and get ourselves a new heart and a new spirit. We are commanded to start over again but to do so with a clean slate.

For how effective is it to write on a blackboard that is already full? Or to procure a new heart or a new soul, when we still carry one that is heavy, weighing us down?

Though we don’t recognize when it happens, we play out the same scene as told above in our own lives, forging ahead before we are ready.

We are so anxious and determined to move forward and get to the next platform, that all of the steps in-between are forgotten; we rush into things before we are truly ready for them. We forget to take off the old before we put on the new.

In this context it makes perfect sense to me that Rosh Hashanah shares the beginning of Tishri with Yom Kippur.
Our calendar appropriately reminds us that we cannot truly enjoy our New Year until we move through the difficulties in the previous year.

We cannot hoard our grievances. Without discarding the old, taking time to get rid of the things that bring us down and keep us from reaching our full potential, we are unable to grow and to move forward.

When things aren’t discarded, but added to, they have a way of piling up and getting out of control.

We must make space in our heavy hearts for the warmth, laughter, love and joy that will flow in the year to come. And so, in order to put on the new, we are reminded to take off the old.

Before we begin our celebrations of Sukkot and Simchat Torah, we must pause for Yom Kippur.

As we begin our preparations for the new year that is upon us, we anxiously anticipate the blessings and renewal that 5774 will bring.

But in order to say titchadesh to our lives, we must first cast off our old angers, frustrations, and wounds, despite how painful this may be.

We must take our mistakes and disappointments and, as we symbolically do at tashlich, throw them into the past.

Only after completing this can we follow the words of Ezekiel, telling us to get ourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

Then, once our hard work is done, like a coach might say to his football team, we are reminded: “listen everyone — we’re unbeaten, untied, even unscored upon. Not bad for the first game of the year!”

Let us suit up for the new season by putting on our new garments fashioned of restored ideals, reshaped dreams, recovered goals, renewed love, renewed trust and, most of all, renewed hope.

As we move through the month of Tishri, we must remember that we, too, are unbeaten, untied, even unscored upon. May we all take advantage of the opportunities that are to come by taking off the old and making room for ourselves and others to grow. Titchadesh.