The High Holidays are a time of coming back. We come back to the spaces that hold so many memories of holidays past, to the people who bring those spaces alive with love and care, and to the beautiful variety of our services that draw from so many different threads of Jewish tradition to welcome the new year. We also come back to ourselves, considering our own story over this past year, the high points and the low ones, the times we have lived up to our highest ideals and the moments when we have fallen short of what we might have hoped for, the losses we have suffered and the joys we have savored. We come back to all of this, and we take comfort in once again seeing familiar spaces and faces, hearing well-loved tunes and poetry, smelling and tasting favorite holiday foods, and feeling the special sense of the holidays entering our souls.
When we come back, though, we are not the same as we were. A year filled with joy, learning, loss, creativity, pain, and growth has changed each of us, sometimes subtly, sometimes on a larger scale. So when we come back, part of the happiness we feel is from seeing the changes in each other and recognizing them in ourselves. We know that the High Holidays are a time for us to transform our hearts, but we have to remember that part of what we do for each other in community is to open up the space for each other to change, to allow for the possibility that those we know are not exactly who they were last year, and to accept the changes in them with love.
This year, as I return from the blessing of a substantial sabbatical, I am more aware than usual that I am coming back changed to a community that has also changed while I was away. There have been deep losses that have rent your hearts, intense discussions that have your opened minds, and joyful celebrations that have buoyed you up. These have changed you, and I look forward to learning about how you and the community are different now than you were when I was last with you. As for me, during these nine months I have thought deeply about American Jewish life, about Israel, and about our community and its future. I have written music and written a book of teachings for mourners that I hope to share with you soon. I have cared for my body with time for walking, skiing, biking, kayaking, and swimming, and finally joined the rest of my family by learning to fence! I have nourished my soul by reinvigorating my prayer life and studying meditation, something else I hope to be sharing with you in the year to come. I have nurtured my heart with extended time with my children and with Cheryl. I am full of all that I have been able to do with this time, and I am so grateful to all of you for giving me this incredible gift. I come back changed, and I hope to share those changes with you.
We go into the new year at a challenging time for us all for so many reasons. Our cherished High Holiday traditions are part of what can sustain us and strengthen us to move forward together, with all of our changes. The Charry Service, Dorshei Derekh, and Minyan Masorti provide beautiful services to inspire us, along with our many children’s services, thoughtprovoking text study with our Student Rabbi Maria Pulzetti, online service options, and the many other programs that make the High Holidays at GJC so warm and meaningful. There is comfort and satisfaction in repeating the paths of decades and hearing the echoes of the past, again, while also knowing that we are different, that we come to these services changed and ready for more changing together.
I am so excited to come back and to continue our work together at GJC in this new year! I hope you, too, will feel the excitement of new possibilities opening up to you as we look forward. This is the year to try something you never have before, to learn and sing and pray and grow in ways that will change you. The energy, diversity, and beauty of this community holds the capacity to transform us and to add meaning to our lives; this is the time to engage and delve into all of it! Cheryl and our sons join me in wishing you a new year of health, happiness, joy, meaning, and peace. L’shanah tovah—may we keep changing and honoring the change in each other for good in this new year!