From the Rabbi

During the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrey, I invite you to take each of four themes and consider them in your thoughts, conversations or prayers. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME.

Encountering these hot days of summer on the new moon of Elul, exactly one moon cycle before the Ten Days of Awe, can feel, well, too sunny. After all, this month and the next one, Tishrey, hold our annual rituals of gathering, remembering and reflection that lead us — often — to chilly evening meals in a shady sukkah.

Yet we trust that the specifics of this time and place go beyond our geographic particulars. As a people, we celebrate anew what we wish for the world’s renewal and well-being. We also do so as citizens of this country, with its unique geography and history, and as individuals, each with our own family topographies and narratives. 

Set your New Year shofar/wake-up call now. Consider adding to your thoughts, conversations or rituals a focus on each of the three simple essentials of prayer — Please, Thanks and Yay! — and a fourth, particular to the season  —  Forgive Me. 

Begin with Please: In several ritual formulas, including the one we refer to as Mi Sheberakh, we ask Jewishly for healing and support. I ask for ongoing healing for a particular loved one. I ask for the healing and caring for our members, kin and others in and beyond our midst, including those I’m called to visit in hospitals and care centres. I ask for comfort to the recently bereaved, especially a colleague who just lost his beloved spouse in a car accident. And I ask for active guidance towards sound judgment in what I can do to repair our ailing global home. Ana El Na Refa Na La — Please, Source of All, bring healing.

Have a hodesh tov/a good new month, and a meaningful anticipation of your High Holy Days.

Next time: more thoughts on the themes, and on the holy days ahead of us.

— Rabbi Liz