HOLY DAYS & FESTIVALS

High Holidays 5785

President’s Message

The High Holidays bring a mixture of excitement and exhaustion, although I must say it’s way better now that I’ve retired and don’t have to layer the start of the school year on top. There’s just so much preparation: working with clergy on the services, getting the slides together, writing my messages for the Bulletin and services, organizing and preparing food for shul and home, and worrying about it all going well. But there’s so much to look forward to: reconnecting with the community after the summer, especially in this “post covid” era, the music, the inspiration, the possibilities of a new year. The rhythm of the High Holidays i interesting: the quiet introspection at S’lichot, the celebration of a New Year at Rosh Hashanah, and the serious work of inward assessment and reassessment during Yom Kippur. All of this as part of a community surrounded by the music, the texts and ideas that are constantly changing but that hold us together now as they have l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation, for centuries. The culmination for me is Neilah; I love the Neilah service. It’s short, and the end of the long day of fasting is within reach, but these are not the reasons I find it so meaningful. The imagery of the gates; the possibility that they are always open, even if just a crack; the possibilities that creates for us individually and as a community to improve, to do something
new, to do something better, more meaningful. For me, it all comes together with that final T’kiah Gadola in front of the open ark as we truly close the gates on 5784 for good and open the gates to 5785. I hope you will join us for the High Holidays this year and find meaning in it all, especially that last blast of the shofar. And I hope you will continue to join us in the new year, participate in something you love, in something new, reconnect and meet new people, and find your place.

From me and my family to you and your family, L’shanah tovah tikateivu v’teichateimu (wishing you a good year, and may you be inscribed and sealed for blessing in the Book of Life)

Judith