{"id":83104,"date":"2024-09-13T16:07:54","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T21:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=83104"},"modified":"2024-09-13T16:07:54","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T21:07:54","slug":"speechless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/speechless\/","title":{"rendered":"Speechless"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER<\/p>\n<p>During the ceremonial roll call at the recent Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Governor Tony Evers was to announce Wisconsin\u2019s support for Kamala Harris\u2019 nomination as President of the United States. Governor Evers became tongue-tied, and \u2013 though reading from a prepared text \u2013 struggled to complete his statement. Perhaps he was overwhelmed by the gravity of his responsibility: rendered speechless at the historic import of the moment.&nbsp; He stammered: \u201c94 votes for&#8230; for&#8230; for&#8230; whoa, where are we? Got me going here. Former Wisconsinite&#8230; oh my God&#8230; I\u2019ll get there&#8230;.\u201d Governor Evers recovered&#8230; but only with considerable difficulty.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>Chassidic lore records that Rabbi Aaron of Karlin had a similar experience! Serving as Cantor on Rosh Hashanah, he became over-wrought at the first word of the Shacharit service \u2013 \u201c<em>Ha-Melech<\/em>&#8230; The (Divine) King\u201d \u2013 and, unable to proceed, was reduced to tears. He later explained: \u201cI suddenly grew ashamed that I had waited until that moment to approach God in sincere prayer and repentance!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The High Holy Days are fraught with moral and spiritual gravity, imbued with a weighty national history. The scripted liturgy can grow too overwhelming to navigate.&nbsp; Our task? Prayerfully&#8230; contritely&#8230; worthily&#8230; to elect how we will conduct ourselves in the universe that God governs.<\/p>\n<p>Our progress might be halting.<\/p>\n<p>With God\u2019s help&#8230; we\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey and the editor of \u201cMasorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Speechless\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[640,9415],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83105,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83104\/revisions\/83105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}