In the weeks ahead we will wish each other, family and friends, Shana Tovah, as an heartfelt expression of our hopes that the person experience a good year, a year filled with health, happiness and blessing. In extending this greeting, we understand the Hebrew word “shana” as meaning year but the Hebrew root Shin Nun Hey has another meaning, as a verb, which, I believe, is essential to our full appreciation of the High Holy Days.
This verbal form means “to change” and so we pray that those we care about have a year filled with positive change, a year of doing things differently and better. Articulated this way, as a challenge, the success of the coming year is not left to happenstance or even exclusively in the hands of the Holy One but it expects of us that we be active in transforming ourselves and being purposeful in our impact on those immediately around us and the communities within which we reside.
With our greeting for the New Year we remind ourselves, and those we meet, that we have a chance for newness in our lives. We also acknowledge the uncertainty that accompanies change. “What will this new reality mean for me?” “How will it rock my familiar and comfortable lifestyle?” Given these qualms and questions, we pray for ourselves and others that we have the courage to be introspective and honest with ourselves, to change what needs changing, to nurture our personal growth, to face the uncertainty ahead with valor and boldness.
L’Shanah Tovah Tikateyvu v’Teychatmu – May you be inscribed and sealed for a year of positive change and transformation.
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, it is impossible not to think about what this past year has meant for us as a global Jewish community and the ongoing situation in Israel. During the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we will mark a year since Hamas’ brutal attacks in Israel’s Eshkol Region, the massacres which took place that day, the ongoing hostage crisis, and the many IDF soldiers who have fallen in Gaza and on Israel’s northern border.
While we wish for the blessings of good health, happiness, and success in the coming year we cannot do so without moments of remembrance and reflection. I recently received a remarkable document created by the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Ritual Center entitled Memory and Hope . It is a series of candle-lighting rituals designed to accompany those moments when we light candles between Rosh Hashanah and Simchat Torah (the first anniversary of the traumatic attack on the Jewish calendar). I hope you will reflect on these brief passages and consider incorporating them into your candle-lighting ritual in the upcoming holidays and Shabbatot.
May the new year see the captives home returned to their loved ones, all our Israeli brothers and sisters returned to their homes, peace to our ancestral homeland, and tranquility to the Jewish people.
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
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