Where are you? Where are you going? How will you get there?

Delivered by Rabbi Joshua Heller first day of Rosh Hashanah 5769

A story that is often told:

A man decides to go hot-air ballooning. He gets up, there are clouds and fog everywhere, he drift- he's lost. The clouds part and he sees a man walking on a country road. He calls down "I'm lost! Can you tell me where I am?"

The man on the ground thinks for a while, looks down, looks up, looks down again, stares into space for a minute, and then cries out:

"You're in a balloon!"

The man in the balloon calls down.

"You must be a lawyer."

"Why?"

What you said was 100% true, but didn't help at all.

The man on the ground calls up "You must be a client"

"You don't know where you are or where to go, and now somehow it's my fault."

We're all looking for direction in life. There are times when we feel lost. When we ask ourselves:

Where are we? Where are we going? How will we get there?

We expect that our lives have direction. Birth, School, Work, Marriage, Family, Retirement. Just follow the crowd! We look for direction in our spiritual lives. In relationships, in education, career. Our lives are shaped by dozens of daily choices. What shall I have for lunch? How do I respond to the question my loved one has asked me? What am I going to watch on TV? Those just lead into dozens of doozy choices: What job do I go for? Whom do I choose as a life partner? Where do I live? Where should we educate our children? Am we saving enough for retirement?

Normally we bury our heads in the sand and worry about the daily choices, we ignore the implications of the doozy choices. But today it's Rosh Hashanah. And we ask the tough questions about our spiritual lives.

Where are we? Where are we going? How will we get there?

Wouldn't it be great if you could receive signals from a heavenly source, transmitted directly to you, that would tell you exactly where you were and how to get where you wanted to go?

Well, guess what, now you can. You pick up the device at any electronic store- it may already be installed in your car, or your phone. It's called GPS- global positioning system. 32 satellites orbit the earth, transmitting special coded signals. A transmitter measures signals from several of the satellites and computes your location. Hook that into a database of street locations, and you can find out what street you're on, and map out what is allegedly the shortest path.

Wendy and I bought one last year. And it's great- in a soothing voice it tells us: "Calculating Route" and then at each intersection, it guides us how to go. "Make a left turn" "Make a sharp right turn" "Stay on the current road" and then my favorite. "You have arrived!" You need never be lost again.

Where are we? Where are we going, How do we get there? Is an electronic device the answer?

I bet that Hagar and Ishmael, in our Torah reading this morning, wished that they had a GPS. You'll remember that Abraham had a son, Ishmael, with his wife's handmaiden Hagar. When Sarah has her own son, Isaac, Ishmael starts to act out, and God commands Abraham to listen to his wife and send away mother and child. Abraham gives Hagar provisions and places them on her shoulder with the child, and sends her away. She goes, and she gets lost in the desert near Be'er Sheva. Soon they are out of water, lost in the desert and she abandons her son under one of the bushes, waiting for him to die. Just at that moment, God calls out to Hagar, and points out a well nearby, saying "I have heard the voice of the child where he is."

There's so much in the story- some people think that we read this story on Rosh Hashanah because it's the lead in to the binding of Isaac tomorrow. Or perhaps because God remembers Sarah- God keeps his promises. To be sure, it's a story about God testing Abraham- true- before he can take Isaac up to Mt. Moriah, he's got to send Ishmael away as well. But more than that, it's a story about the terror of being physically lost, being spiritually lost. About the terror of not knowing where you are and where you are going. What happens when we wander, when we lose sight of our goals and aims? What happens when we don't know where we are, don't know where we want to be, and don’t know how to get there.

Where are we, where are we going, how will we get there?

Where are we?

How do we really know where we are? Do we assess ourselves relative to others, (have you kept up with the Joneses? Are you at least better than that no-good brother-in-law of yours?) or relative to some absolute value. We really need a different kind of G.P.S. A God Positioning System. God knows where we are, even when we don't. God knows where we are not just on Rosh Hashanah, but at each moment.

Look again at the story of Hagar and Ishmael- God intervenes and saves Ishmael- the text says- “B'asher hu sham.” Where he is. God knows where Ishmael is right at that moment. Physically- he's under the bush. God knows where he is going- he is going to be the founder of a mighty nation. Among his descendents will be some Islamic tribesmen who will be fierce wielders of the bow and sword. And there are those who left this world at the point of those arrows, the edge of those swords, and wished that perhaps God had shown a little less mercy back there under that bush. But God judges us at each moment. God knows where we are. And God judges us at each moment based on where we are, because WE choose where we will go next.

And still, God asks us to know where we are. The very first question in the entire torah is “Ayeka”- where are you? A question asked, according to the tradition, five thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine years ago today. Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of knowledge, and they too, are hiding behind a bush. And God asks "Ayeka"- where are you? God knows exactly where they are. God knows they are behind the bush wearing guilty looks. God could set the darn thing on fire if he wanted to- He knows that trick. But God asks, because He wants us to know where we are.

Can we turn an honest eye to ourselves, to find out our true position? We imagine ourselves sinners or saints. Our sages teach us that we must see ourselves as if we are on the very fulcrum of a giant scale. Our next act, good or bad, will tip us this way or that. We are, at each moment, a fork in the road.

Where are we, where are we going, how will we get there?

Where are we going?

What are our goals, what is our destination?

This is the easiest question, and the hardest. Most people would tell you that they have a good destination in mind. They want to be successful, have good relationships with God , with themselves, with family, and their fellow man. But sometimes we choose the wrong goals.

A true story. As is often the case, about 9:15 one Saturday morning, a bus pulled up and left off a number of people here at the synagogue. They came in, and sat with great decorum- they helped us make a minyan. They had come in for the Bar Mitzvah. The kids were very well behaved, which was perhaps the first sign that something was amiss. After further consultation, we confirmed that in fact we were not having a bar mitzvah that weekend. These poor folks had been dropped off at the wrong synagogue!

If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Choose good goals. Over the course of these holidays, we will have a chance to talk about what goals are worthwhile.

Where are we? where are we going, how will we get there?

How do we get there?

Well, I have GPS. This summer, Wendy and I took the kids on an extended road trip to visit family in Pittsburg and Detroit. With our trusty GPS in hand, we set out on the road. headed for Pittsburgh. The GPS told us to get on 285. Check. Head West Hmm. Follow 285 down around, past Smyrna, past the airport, and then back up to the East side. A nice 60 mile detour around the entire perimiter. Who designed this thing, Pascual "Perimeter" Perez? (For those of you who don't know, Pasquale Perez was the ace of the 1982-3 Braves, and he once missed a game because he drove around the perimeter three times looking for Fulton County Stadium).

Turns out it's not just our problem. It's an everyday occurance, from the quaint villages, glens and crofts of Wedmore, England to the scenic beauty of Secaucus New Jersey, truck drivers following their GPS units looking for a shortcut, get stuck in back alleys, lanes and neighborhoods chasing routes that exist only in cyberspace.

Well, it's one thing to be physically lost, it's another thing to be spiritually lost.

We get spiritually lost for some of the same reasons. Pirkei D'rabbi Eliezer, in a classic rabbinic interpretation of the midrash, suggests that the reason why Hagar got lost during her wanderings in the desert was that she was apprehensive and she turned off her path to worship idols. And that's perhaps the toughest thing, because sometimes we have a noble goal in mind, but we lose our way because take the wrong route getting there. Sometimes in life when we get into trouble, it is because we try to take shortcuts that don't work. In seeking relationships- we try to substitute the quick hot rush of lust for the longer-simmering glow of love. We have a desire for instant gratification. I need it now. I'll buy it now even though I can't pay for it now. A house, a big screen TV, a car. A bank. We are now seeing the unraveling of that in our economy on the grandest scale. These shortcuts all have a toll on them.

The Talmud (Eruvin 73) tells the story of Rabbi Yose ben Hanania

Once he was walking on the way, and he saw a child sitting at a fork in the road. He said to the child- how shall I go to the city?

The child said- this way is short and long, this way is long and short. The rabbi took the one that was short and long. When he got to the city, he saw that it was surrounded by gardens and orchards. He got lost between the hedges (kind of like a certain college football team) and he had to turn back.

The rabbi came back and said to the child "my son, did you not say that that way was short?"

He repllied- did I not say to you that it was long!"

The rabbi kissed the child on the head, and said to him- happy is the people Israel who are all Chachamim, from the great to the small. Chacham means wise. You can decide if he meant “Wise men” or “wise guys.”

Sometimes the longest road is better than the shorter one. Sometimes doing something right takes time. Relationships take time. Raising children right takes time. Doing the right thing in your work takes time. Doing the right thing with God- study, prayer and good deeds- takes time. Sometimes if the road is long, don't think that you can make it any shorter.

Another true story- Wendy and I almost met several times- I was a guest in her apartment at Michigan, but she was out that night. We were yards away from each other at the same REM concert in Israel. Eventually some friends introduced us. I was to give her a ride back up to summer camp. I listened to the traffic report. And decided to execute a maneuver that is usually only executed by the most brazen New York cabbies- I took the Cross Bronx to the major Deegan during rush hour. By carefully picking the routes with the worst traffic a 1 1/2 hour trip took 2 1/2 hours- now it's stretched on 11 years, and we've picked up three passengers along the way.

So, would you devote an extra hour to a relationship that matters to you this week? Would you devote an extra hour to make sure that something is done the right way in your office? Would you devote an extra hour to spending time at home, in prayer or study? Would you go out of your way to come to synagogue?

Where are we, where are we going? How do we get there?

We are not without guidance. Sometimes the guidance is cryptic, like the wiseacre who offered direction to Rabbi Yose ben Hananiah. But as for us, we have friends and spouses. We have rabbis and the texts of our tradition to guide us. But do we listen?

A rabbi and a minister are standing by the road, pounding a sign into the ground. The sign reads:

"The End is Near! Turn Yourself Around Now Before It's Too Late!"

A car speeds past them, the driver yelling, "Leave us alone, you religious nuts!"

There is the sound of screeching tires followed by a big splash.

The rabbi turns to the minister and asks, "Do you think the sign should just say 'Bridge Out?'

It's rare that we drive off life's cliffs on purpose, but it is also equally rare that we do so without warning. Usually we are somewhere between Wile E. Coyote and Thelma and Louise. And as we hang there, suspended improbably over the landscape of our own self-destruction, we hear the echoes of the voices we ignored. Our doctor warned us that if we kept doing what we are doing it could harm our health. Our spouse warned us that our behavior could damage our relationship. The rabbi told us we could do better. Warren Buffet told us to sell. We know ourselves that we are heading the wrong way. We know that we are going against the grain.

We're like the guy whose out driving on the highway and his wife calls him on his cell phone:

"honey- where are you?"

“I'm on route 80” he responds

“Be careful- there's a car driving the wrong way on that highway.” She warns him

"Heck- it's not just one car- there's hundreds of them."

To be sure- there are times when our tradition demands that we go against the stream of society at large. That we don't eat they way everyone else is eating. that we don't model our intimate relationships on what we seen on the screen. that we don't sink to the lowest common denominator in business. You're all swimming against the stream by taking a day from work, and school, and every day life to be here.

So, where are you, where are you going, how will you get there.?

What do you do if you find that you are just plain old headed the wrong way?

One of the Hassidic masters was asked that very question by his students, and he responded. "Turn around."

That's what the heavenly G.P.S would tell you, and that's what the earthly g.p.s would tell you. "as soon as possible, make a legal U Turn."

Don't stubbornly insist on going further the wrong way. There is a whole process of these high holidays, which is teshuvah. Where are you- are you sinning? Are you doing something that's taking you further from God? Where are you goin? Do you want to be better, you want to be closer to God? Teshuvah literally means to turn around. It means changing attitudes. Changing behavior. Changing directions. It means making a legal U turn.

But we are creatures of habit. We keep trying the same old things, and hoping maybe this time they will work. Michael Knopf, our rabbinic intern this summer, reminded me that that's the definition of insanity- trying the same thing and hoping to get different results.

If something just isn't working, maybe it's time to do something different.

Another favorite story of mine.

Two men were avid moose hunters (nowadays it's hard to talk about moose hunting without being seen as political) Every year they chartered a plane to take them to the Alaskan back country. By the end of the week, they had each bagged a moose, and they called the plane to come picked them up.

When the plane arrived, the pilot took one look at the animals and told the hunters there was no way they could take such a heavy load along.

"But we spent all week hunting for these moose," they protested. "And besides, the pilot we hired last year wasn't worried about the moose's weight!"

After much argument, the pilot finally relented and allowed them to load the moose. The heavy plane was only air-borne for a few minutes when it lost altitude and came down in the woods

As the men struggled out of the wreckage, one hunter asked, "Where are we?"

His friend answered, "About a mile farther than we got last year."

So ask yourself those question.

Where am I, where am I going, how will I get there?

Check your GPS, with a capital G.

Where are you? Are you where you want to be in life? Are you at peace in your relationships? Are you kind to those around you? Are you satisfied with the way you spend your days? Whether you think you are sinner or a saint, know that you are balanced, teetering between Good and Evil.

Where are you going- what is your goal, and is it a worthy one? Are you chasing the things that have meaning in life, or are you just chasing things.

How will you get there? Ask for directions. Hear God's direction from the words of our tradition. From loved ones, even from the Rabbi.

Will you try the same things, or will you reach out and try something you've been afraid to try.

A year from now, when you ask yourself "Where am I"-

Let the answer not be "the same place I was last year."

Let the answer not be "about a mile further than we got last year"

Let the answer be "you have arrived."