Dear Friends,
As I write this letter, Israel is engaged in a war with both Hamas and Hezbollah. There is fear that, any day, this could become a regional war. Daily news coverage focuses on the escalating death and destruction in the Middle East and the bitter divide in our country as we approach a crucial presidential election in November. The world today is not the same world we knew when we approached the High Holidays last year. This year, the world seems a more fearful and unstable place. For me, this is all the more reason to embrace our traditions and to focus on the themes of remembering, reflecting, and repairing.
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur help me to place myself in the millennia-old course of Jewish history and ritual. How many Jews, in how many different communities and different historical moments, have prepared for the new year, as we are doing now with family and friends. This sense of history puts things in perspective for me. There have been such great highs and such devastating lows for our people, for the world, during the past few thousand years. And yet, our traditions have endured, our people has endured, as has the hope that perhaps this will be the year when we human beings get it right. This is the great gift of being part of such an ancient tradition. We have the long view, the understanding that the momentary highs and lows of history are not all that there is. There are more enduring truths, deeper currents of wisdom, that we can tap into and that can sustain us.
I hope that these High Holidays will provide us the opportunity to reflect and ultimately receive insights and wisdom that will help us face the challenging days ahead. I know that it seems naïve to feel that we can do this when the world seems to be falling apart. How can we be so self-absorbed at a time like this? Isn’t observing the Jewish holidays just a distraction from the real problems of the world?
My response to these questions is that, if I am given over to uncontrollable waves of anxiety, anger, or fear, then I become part of the problem, not part of the solution. I project my own insecurities and struggles out into the world. In Jewish parlance, religious practice is called avodah, “service.” My spiritual practice is in service to something higher than my own happiness (although that’s a nice byproduct!). When I sit with others in my community and pray, when I read and sing, and when I am silent, I am doing so in the service of seeing more clearly the world around me and discerning the wisest, most ethical course of action to take. There are plenty of voices of anger, vitriol, and violence, around me. However, I can strive to be a different voice, and to take actions that promote peace, justice, and understanding.
So, as we enter the New Year 5785, may we be blessed to come together as a community to support each other. May our souls be nourished, our hearts and minds expanded, and our work in the world all be for the good.
L’Shana Tova U’metuka! May you find goodness and sweetness in the year ahead.
Rabbi Jordan Goldson