High Holy Days

2020/5781

August 2020

Dear Friends:

These high holy days will be unlike any other. This figures, following a year unlike any other. A global pandemic has changed nearly everything we know to be true: school, schedule, milestones, how we pray, how we shop, how we communicate with each other. Zoom has become a way of life. Some of us have gone months without seeing loved ones in person.

I cannot tell you how much I will miss joining with you in our beloved sanctuary to experience Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Standing with our congregation on the high holy days fills my heart year after year. I know it does the same for you. I will miss joining with you as we sing Avinu Malkenu and hear the soul-searing call of the shofar. I will miss parading the Torah through the aisles and seeing the faces of our children aglow as they extend a hand to touch our age-old scroll. In a year of missing, these will all be substantial misses.

But I do believe there are opportunities this year. While we may be physically distant, we are as spiritually connected to each other and our enduring values as ever. Our community continues to navigate 2020 together and we will navigate these unusual high holy days together. In truth, we need these sacred days of reassurance and perspective more than ever. We need to remember the remarkable story of the Jewish people and the faith our ancestors embodied in their own time. We need to remember that while the world feels so fractured at the moment, broken along racial and ethnic and political lines, we Jews have long helped to repair division and tend to the wounds of society. We will continue to do that critical work in the coming year.

While these holy days will be unique, they will be special and memorable. I look forward to welcoming the new year with you and your family, even virtually. I pray that we will be together in person very soon. Here’s to a year of health and happiness for you and your loved ones.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Benjamin David