Hear Our Voice

1. Sometimes You Got to Stand Up!  If you or your child wish to attend Rosh Hashanah and/or Yom Kippur services this year, neither your school nor your employer can legally penalize you or your child for your absence.  Yes, it might take a bit of bravery and courage to take your stand but isn’t it worth it?  Check out this very clarifying document from the Anti-Defamation League.

2. Gospel Anyone? On Rosh Hashanah Evening, the Phillip Hall Singers will be bringing an extra special celebratory (and dare we say Gospel?) resonance to our Jewish New Year celebration!  Along with our outstanding group of Rosh Hashanah musicians (Hannah Madeleine Goodman, Ryan Rogers, Kelly Dean and Leo Hernandez), the Phillip Hall singers will help us all “ring in the new year!”  Check out these brief recordings of their rehearsal of “Ldor Vador” and Hannah’s “Avinu Malkeinu” to get a sense.

3. "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" (kudos to those who have read this far and know the reference!) If you allow them to be, the High Holy Days can be a 10 day “soul-journey” that begins with Rosh Hashanah and concludes with Yom Kippur. There is so much tzurris in the world, it makes all the more important the identification of those aspects of our lives over which we have real influence, and those over which we truly do not wield any control at all.  Interestingly the more energy we expend on these parts of our lives, they do indeed get bigger.  The more time we spend trying to control so much that is not at all under our control, that arena does get bigger, but only in terms of the number of things out of our control.  However, when we are honest with ourselves, and will ourselves to exert influence on the aspects of our lives that we can affect, that circle gets bigger in that we are able to influence much more than we might have ever imagined. The first is an act of katnut (small or narrow-mindedness), the second is an act of gadlut (large or wide-mindedness). 

Don’t just come to the High Holy Days.  Set your intention for a mind-widening, heart-deepening, tongue-softening, and hand-holding journey that can transform your days to come – but it’s going to take way more than we can do from the bima (not because we won’t be ready and rehearsed and practiced but because we can only get half-way, we need you to come the other half of the way)!

See you all soon,

Rabbi Scott