A Rosh Hashanah message to our President, Barack Obama

Sometime before we light the first candles of Rosh Hashanah, President Obama will send his holiday message to the Jewish community.

The President usually misses a big part of what the High Holidays are about — understandable since he isn’t Jewish and he was a student of the law rather than of theology. This year, I decided to send the President a Rosh Hashanah message of my own, a message that explains to him why progressive politics is antithetical to the meaning of the Jewish Holidays.

With the setting of the sun on Wednesday, Jews will begin the observance of the Yomim Noraim (Days of Awe), a ten-day period book-ended by the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This year’s High Holiday period comes as your party and that of the opposition are pushing in two radically different directions, one which emphasizes personal responsibility, the other a reliance on government.

The High Holidays are all about personal responsibility. For earthly-type mistakes, we must first approach the people we harmed to request forgiveness and if necessary make restitution to them. Then we must discover what within ourselves led us to mess-up and correct the flaw behind it. Only then can we approach G-d for absolution. Our Maker is not like a big government we turn to for an easy fix.

It’s not that G-d couldn’t fix everything, but his direct involvement would destroy the delicate balance he established during Creation. The Creation narrative in Genesis explains that man is created in G-d’s image, not that we are dead ringers for the “big guy upstairs.” Only through free choice can man truly be “in the image of G-d.”

Free will is the divine version of limited government. G-d picks the winning direction but does not choose winners or losers.

Because we all are created in G-d’s image, Jews believe that ”All men are created equal.” This does not mean, as many in the progressive establishment tell us, that when it comes to talents, looks, preferences, or natural abilities we are all equal. Nor does it mean we all should have the same big screen TV, wireless Internet, cookies and cream ice cream, or savings account balance.

Jewish tradition respects economic success, so long as it is obtained honestly and proper respect is shown for the social responsibility that comes with it. That social responsibility is a personal duty and a job for the community led by its religious leaders, not the government. The Hebrew word for charity, tzedaka, has in its root the word tzedek which means righteous, because we are taught that personally giving charity is one of the keys to being righteous.

What is actually meant by “all men are created equal” is that we all have the same ability to be infinitely good or wicked, we all have the same ability to forge a relationship with G-d regardless of our intellectual capability, social background, physical strength, golf handicap, wealth, etc. During the High Holidays, we evaluate how well we have used the “lot we have been given” for good deeds and to forge that heavenly relationship.

Some of the Sages have suggested that when G-d created the world, sparks of his holiness were spread across the earth.

Every time that a person makes the choice of performing a righteous act, one of those sparks is purified and sent back to heaven. Through that process we become closer to G-d.

Progressive Democrats and the nanny-state government take away that choice. Jews who support progressivism are rejecting the free will given to us by our Maker, and giving it to the government, retarding their spiritual development and as a result cancelling an opportunity to get closer to G-d. In a progressive society, the ten Days of Awe are not necessary; introspection is not needed because government makes all the choices .

In an English dictionary, the word sin is defined as any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of a religious or moral principle. There is no word in Hebrew matching that definition.

Instead Jews talk about chet (missing the mark). It is an archery term referring to an arrow that “missed the target.” The person who missed the mark is considered to have made the mistake due to a lack of focus, concentration or skill. The purpose of the High Holidays is for each Jew to determine why they missed the mark. The answer cannot come from someone else or from the Government. It has to come from inside each person.

The rabbis tell us that the only way to do teshuvah (repentance) is by personal reflection and personal choice (as opposed to governmental regulation). G-d gives us a road map in the Torah, Prophets, Psalms and other sacred texts; he even gave us coaches (rabbis), but to truly change ourselves, and ultimately change the world, we have to discover for ourselves the best way to read the road map.

Progressive and liberal governments remove our free will; they make the decisions, determine the path, eliminate the need for introspection and our opportunity to find the sparks of G-d in the world. In the end, what those governments take from its citizens is the greatest joy of all, finding for themselves the path that will draw them closer to G-d.

To all my rriends and readers, Le-shana tova Tikatevu ve-Techatemu (May G-d Write And Seal You In The Book Of Life For A Good Year).

Jeff Dunetz is the Editor/Publisher of the political blog “The Lid” (www.jeffdunetz.com). Jeff contributes to some of the largest political sites on the Internet including American Thinker, Big Government, Big Journalism, NewsReal and Pajama’s Media, and has been a guest on national radio shows including G. Gordon Liddy, Tammy Bruce and Glenn Beck.