There is nothing in the world like singing to a baby. Many years ago, a friend of mine asked me to watch over her newborn as she put her older daughter to bed. This being one of my first experiences with a baby, I was not quite sure what to do. I did what I do best, I sang to him. “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star…” slowly his eyes riveted to mine. His body softened and then began to drop off. The thirty or so times I sang the song, he kept fighting to stay awake until sleep finally claimed him. As a cantor, I get to repeat this incredible moment each time I help families welcome their new babies into Judaism during their bris[1] or brit bat[2]. Every time a family welcomes a new baby, it is as if each member of that family becomes a new creation. Each mother, father, sister, brother, grandparent, family member is forever changed, woven deeply into the fabric of a new life forever. This is often the first Jewish lifecycle the family celebrates together in their life as a new unit. A … [Read more...]
Where Will You Make Your Pilgrimage this Sukkot?
Many of us woke up this morning still feeling the weight of Yom Kippur: in our dehydrated heads, our somewhat empty stomachs, and even in the depths of our souls. Yom Kippur is an emotional rollercoaster of deep reflection that ends with the triumphant nature of the Ne’ilah service. Lest we think the holidays were slowing down any time soon, many people across the world awoke this morning to begin to build their sukkot for the biblical holiday: The Feast of Booths (Sukkot). Harkening back to our biblical text (Deut. 16:1) we learn: Three times a year—on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths — the Israelites were to appear before God in a place that God would select. The Israelites were not to appear before God empty-handed. Now, there’s no Third Temple standing in Jerusalem for us to make pilgrimage to, so where might we go and appear before God with something in our hands? I would say, that we should all journey right back to Temple … [Read more...]
Start Today
In some ways, the High Holidays (and Yom Kippur in particular) are ‘artificial lines in the sand.’ Meaning, the intense internal work that we seek to do for our own lives, and the health of our community can be done at any time, but for the vast majority of us, it is not. Life is busy. Introspection is hard. So Judaism gives us a set period of time for this ‘project’ – the days leading up to Yom Kippur. Although it is profoundly personal, we don’t do it alone, but rather as a ‘team’ with Jews everywhere charged towards this effort. One of the main components of Yom Kippur is to recognize who we have wronged in the past year, to try our best to correct the harm we have done, to internalize the regret, and to apologize. Tradition holds our proverbial feet to the fire with the instruction that we need to be specific about the person, and our infraction, in order to have our apology ‘count’. (Sorry, posting a general apology on Facebook to a faceless population absolutely does … [Read more...]
Yom Kippur is the Happiest Day of the Year
So often we rush out of services too soon to experience how the day changes and evolves. Just because Yom Kippur is a heavy day laden with talk of teshuva, judgment, and reflection, does not also mean that Yom Kippur cannot be happy as well. Yom Kippur is filled with complex emotions. On Erev Yom Kippur and on Yom Kippur morning, the liturgy is heavy on the ways we have gone astray and the ways we can improve in the year to come, but as the day goes on the mood brightens. The last service of the day, Ne’ilah, is triumphant service that proclaims, we are here, we have been forgiven and pardoned, and we can enter the new year with a clean slate! The idea of Yom Kippur as the most joyous day of the year goes back to the Talmud. Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, one of our greatest sages, said that Yom Kippur was a day of dancing and music in his time. Later rabbis wonder why Yom Kippur was so happy in Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel’s time. They realize that the point of Yom Kippur is to face the … [Read more...]
Send your “sins” down the river
If you have not checked your calendar… the Rosh Hashanah is fast approaching! Dig out the brisket recipe, practice your round challah braiding skills, make the honey cake with the kids, it is time to welcome a brand new year! My favorite ritual of Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich. I take my day old bread down to the river and tear it into little pieces. Those pieces represent all of the things I would like to let go of from this past year. I cast those pieces into the water and watch as they float away. In shul, we come together as a community and admit our wrongdoings as individuals and as a people; we ask our community, our friends, families and God to forgive us. Our fixed prayers do not necessarily guide us to ask for forgiveness from ourselves. Tashlich is the final step of the prayers we have been sending and singing in synagogue. This ritual gives us a physical outlet to let go of the things that we have done wrong to ourselves and to others. When we take a breath and stretch … [Read more...]
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