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 rituals. They represent the three simplest essentials of prayers, with a fourth seasonally-specific one: PLEASE. THANKS. YAY! FORGIVE ME.

Yay! This is one of three primary purposes of Jewish prayer. We say a litany of yay words in our Aramaic “doxology,” otherwise known as the Kaddish, in its various forms: bless! praise! glorify! lift up! hold in awe! extol!  

Praise and wonder shouldn’t be hard – it should be positively natural. And yet, we certainly don’t, collectively, exuberantly demonstrate this, body and soul. Maybe we do so in head and heart; certainly, for those of us who are primarily comfortable in our heads, the shouts and moves of public physical devotion can be especially discomfiting. 
In less than a week, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the full shape of the moon will be barely visible, casting just a sliver of light from the night sky. But our faces and hearts can still glow with joy. Perhaps during this last week of the Jewish year, you might pause to remember a time or place you felt, and expressed, joy. 

Don’t postpone joy! If there is any message of the Season of Awe that I’d like to shout out, it’s certainly this one. Cultivate your yays.  

Next week:  The New Year, and our fourth theme.

- Rabbi Liz