As soon as the shofar is blown after Neilah, there’s one thing I’m typically thinking about (in addition to my break-fast meal): Sukkot. After an intense month of selichot, teshuva, and literally praying for our lives, I look forward to the lighter holiday of Sukkot and Simchat Torah, which symbolize fall, family, feasting, and fun. But this year, like countless other people, I’m conflicted. How do we celebrate Sukkot — zman simchateinu — the holiday that is synonymous with unadulterated joy, when it is now connected to perhaps the darkest day in Israel’s history? It can be no coincidence that we find some guidance in the very megillah we read on Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkot, Kohelet, attributed to Shlomo HaMelech. Chapter 3 famously opens with: לַכֹּ֖ל זְמָ֑ן וְעֵ֥ת לְכׇל־חֵ֖פֶץ תַּ֥חַת הַשָּׁמָֽיִם עֵ֤ת לִבְכּוֹת֙ וְעֵ֣ת לִשְׂח֔וֹק עֵ֥ת סְפ֖וֹד וְעֵ֥ת רְקֽוֹד׃ עֵ֤ת לֶֽאֱהֹב֙ וְעֵ֣ת לִשְׂנֹ֔א עֵ֥ת מִלְחָמָ֖ה וְעֵ֥ת שָׁלֽוֹם׃ There is a time and a season for...
Attention as an Essential Ingredient to Gratitude Each year, in late summer, we are told by the Rambam that the Shofar is there to wake us up. It is as if the Shofar tells us: Sleepers arise from your slumber, and those who are dozing, awake from your lethargy. And this year, in this late fall, this Thanksgiving, after reading an essay on gratitude by David Whyte, I realize that this call to wake up and to pay attention requires a constant reminder. David Whyte, in his masterpiece book, Consolations, writes: “Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given, gratitude arises from paying attention…Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life. (Consolations, p.89) We live in a world that is constantly trying to grab our attention. And it is the area of attention where we need to focus on most this Thanksgiving. As Jews, ...
Disorienting Tears: A Biblical Trio and the Shofar in 5784 (2024) For months, I have been dreading Rosh Chodesh Elul. Up until now, each year, I eagerly awaited this day. As crisp fall air would gradually make its presence felt in the early mornings, Elul would be a time to cue up my special Playlist on Spotify, take out my Yamim Noraim sefarim and await the first sounds of the Shofar. Yet, this year, the thought of those first sounds fills me with angst. While the shofar’s first blasts have always brought me to tears, the tears of this Elul, Elul 5784, will be painfully and dramatically different. These will be tears of loss, of heaviness and of a world that seems stuck in sadness. . I was not sure I could be ready for this shofar moment until I thought of the lives of three Biblical figures, Noach, Daniel and Iyyov, and realized that if they could face catastrophe, so must we. The Torah mentions Noach three times in one pasuk (Bereshit 6:9) נח ו, ט: אֵ֚לֶּה תּֽוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ...
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