High Holidays
On Rosh Hashana we blow the Shofar and sing, Hayom Harat Olam, Today is the World's Birthday. Today we accept the Divine charge to transform ourselves. Today we begin to take action to renew our expectations, our ideals, our perspectives. Today we begin. Today is Bereisheet, In the Beginning. May a life of wonder and the ineffable choose us, and in turn, we as well, at this precious moment of new beginnings. Shanah Tova & G'Mar Chatimah Tova, Rabbi Tom Samuels
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Yom Kippur Morning Service
September 28, 2020 10 Tishrei, 5781 |
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Yom Kippur Neila Service
September 28, 2020 10 Tishrei, 5781 |
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Ochila La'Kel: Letting in God's Love
This is a beautiful 2nd Century Piyut by Yitzhak Algazi, recited on the High Holidays, the Yamim Noraim. Adonai s'fatai tiftach, ufi yagid t’hilatecha, God, open my lips that my mouth may tell Your praise.” (Psalm 51:17). Am I ready to stand before HaShem who gazes deeply, exposing, revealing my entire being? Am I ready to listen to the Kol D’mama Dakka, the Sound of Delicate Silence? We all carry a foreboding darkness of peril and instability. Some more than others. Some less. Am I safe? Am I loved? It is dark. I am afraid, and I think that I am all alone. Rosh Hashanah, which fall when the moon is mostly hidden, is called Yom ha'Keseh, The Day of Covering. The word Kippur, is the same for the word Kaporet, the Ark's covering. Both are images of HaShem’s protection and love. Baruch ata Adonai, Malbeesh Arumim, Adonai, Your great power clothes the naked. The God of the Bible is really the parent of humanity who clothes us, holds us, assures us that we are indeed not alone. Le'Adam ma'archi lev u'mHaShem mea'aneh lashon, A person arranges life, but ultimately all comes from God. Am I willing to open up to His presence? His protection? How much of His love can I take in? |
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Opening Our Eyes to Wonder
The High Holy Days have the power to enrich and transform our lives. To help us to become aware, deeply aware, at how fragile our lives really are. To open our eyes to the beauty and wonder that surrounds us. Together, as a community, we celebrate this opportunity to bring the Divine in to our lives. |
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A Pathway to Teshuva, Returning
The ancient Jewish process of Repentance, which in the Hebrew, Teshuvah, literally translates as “returning.” An intentional act of changing extant assumptions, habits, and patterns. In fact, Teshuva is not at all about repentance, but really a return, a journey home. Teshuvah is the longing, the yearning, the pining to return to that state of embracing our internalized God... |
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COVID and An Unknown Destination
We are in trying times. The Coronavirus’ unpredictability, its chasms of the unknown, cause us to feel vulnerable, scared: How long will it last? How far will it spread? How can we re-create that sense of enrichment, of holiness, of community when we are all so physically isolated... READ MORE |
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Wonder and Letting in the Light
The great Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain… a Brit… teaches us Americans something so core, so fundamental to the blessing that is, well, that is America. Let’s take a trip. Back to the American Revolution. To the City of Philadelphia. To Independence Hall, where the colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. And let’s stand, in awe, under the grandeur of the Liberty Bell. And if we look carefully, we can see that the bell is cracked. Imperfect. Broken... READ MORE |
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New Beginnings
On Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur we recite an ancient prayer known by its first few words, Unetaneh Tokef, literally, “Let Us Cede Power.” The prayer starts of with a list of existential questions: On Rosh Hashanah our fate is written, and on Yom Kippur our fate is sealed... How many will pass and how many will be created... READ MORE |
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On Forgiveness & Repentance
There is a beautiful Hassidic tale. Once, during the High Holy Days, the great mystic Rabbi Yitzchak Luria heard a Bat Kol, literally a “Daughter of the Voice”, God’s voice, telling him that for all his prayerful intensity there was one man in a neighboring town whose capacity for prayer exceeded even his own... READ MORE |
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On Prayer
There is a famous Yiddish saying: “If a Jew breaks a leg, he thanks God he did not break both legs. And, if he breaks both legs, he thanks God he did not break his neck.” This reminds me of a wonderful passage in the Talmud where God prays that He will use His omnipotent power with compassion and love... READ MORE |
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High Holidays: Ten Days of Teshuva
The period from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur is known as the Ten Days of Teshuva. Ten days to think about what will the coming year bring. "When I turn the next page of the Book of Life," write the Jewish philosopher, Atar Hadari, "there may be a tragedy that makes everything I strive for today seem worthless. Or maybe there will be a wonderful surprise that makes my striving irrelevant." While we know for certain that something will happen, we cannot know exactly what it will be. "We are in a plot," Hadari concludes, "and we don’t get to write it." That while we would very much like to be in total control of our lives, the fact is we are not. How then are we to proceed, to actually live in the present given this overwhelming uncertainty? Our Sages remind us that we do indeed have control. Not over the future, but rather through our ability to open our eyes to the beauty and wonder that continually surrounds us. To the reality that we are all an intimate part of God’s creative powers. To celebrate our endless opportunities to bring HaShem in to our lives. In to the world. Let us make these precious Ten Days of Teshuva, ten days of journeying. Ten days of transformation and healing. Ten days to earn our place in the Book of Life. |
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The Prayer of Silence
Why is it that only on the Yom Kippur we recite the prayer that the comes right after the Shema, Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto LeOlam VaEd, “Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever” out loud? For the entire rest of the year it is recited quietly, almost in a silent murmur... READ MORE |
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Keeping Hope Alive
These are indeed times that challenge our very souls. We continue to shelter-in-place, nostalgic for the lives we used to live less than 1/2 a year ago. It is almost as if, no, it is as if, we are on the precipice of a seemingly endless abyss which separates our current lives, realities, on the one side, and a chasm of an unknown, indeterminate future on the other. מִמַּעֲמַקִּים קְרָאתִיךָ יְהוָה, “From my depths I call out for HaShem’s help.” We are indeed brokenhearted. Broken-down... READ MORE |