Dear Friends,
It’s the last Shabbat of the Jewish Year! I take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a Shana Tova u’Metuka – a good and a sweet New Year, filled with joy, health, and happiness!
It is also Labor Day weekend, so I hope you will enjoy this weekend too as we approach the holiday of Rosh HaShana which begins on Monday evening!
Our Torah portion of Nitzavim includes a verse in which we read the following seemingly redundant message: “…choose life, so that you and your children may live…”.
Our Sages taught us that this seemingly redundant message is actually full of meaning….Choosing life is the first step. “That you and your children may live” is another step forward after we have chosen life. Our Torah portion is reminding us that, on Rosh HaShana, while we pray for life, we also pray that our life should have meaning and purpose. Choosing life and praying for life is the beginning. Praying and doing what we can to fill our lives with meaning and purpose is the continuation of our spiritual journey.
May we choose life, and may our lives and the lives of our loved ones, be filled with meaning and purpose as we move into the new Jewish year of 5782!
Shabbat Shalom and Ketiva va’Chatima Tova [may we be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for a good year]!
Rabbi Gilah Dror
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