From the Rabbi's Desk

We’re less than a week away from the High Holidays and we cannot wait to be together as a community, in our building, to celebrate. I hope you’ll join us for some of the various celebrations we have planned over the time of the holidays. We have our Tashlich picnic at Lenox Park after services on Friday, October 4. Please sign up for your boxed lunch for the picnic on our website. The picnic and Tashlich service will take place on the Second Day of Rosh Hashana. It’s important to recognize that Rosh Hashana is universally a two-day celebration/observance. We look forward to offering you a full and engaging service on both days. On the second day, I look forward to an interactive text study in place of the sermon. I’ll be joined by Rabbi Nachum Gutierrez and Rabbah Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez in this experience. Over the holidays, we’ll be looking in the mirror as individuals and as a community and seeing what can be improved. I look forward to a deep and important conversation with our community about who we are and what we need to do to become a better and more engaged community.

After Yom Kippur, we’ll be celebrating Sukkot and then Simchat Torah. There will be so many chances to celebrate these wonderful holidays. One great opportunity will be Israel Sukkot Shabbat Dinner. We will be hosting the Israeli Consul General that night and we look forward to celebrating and eating with her. We’ll also be raising money to help injured Israeli Soldiers through Achim l’chaim. Please come to the dinner and help us reach our goal of raising $7,500 to sponsor one Israeli superhero who’s recovering from his or her service.

I just finished watching the movie: We Will Dance Again – Surviving October 7^th, on Paramount+. It was hard and horrifying to sit and watch and yet it was critical to witness. I recommend everyone watches it to be able to see with your own eyes what transpired and why it is that we, as a people, cannot accept a scenario where Hamas and Hezbollah are allowed to remain in proximity to us. The Nova Festival was happening last October 7, the day Israelis were celebrating Simchat Torah. The survivors of the Nova Festival have declared since that day that “We (they) will dance again”. They are right. We, as a people, will find the strength and resolve to stand up and love life again. We’ll find a way to celebrate achievements and milestones. We need to, because to never dance again is to allow Hamas and other terrorists to alter our world. We must dance again. Please mark your calendars and join us to celebrate Simchat Torah on October 24. We’ll have a puppet show for the kids, dinner to enjoy and we’ll dance together. We’ll dance for those who can no longer dance. We’ll dance for our heritage and our faith. We’ll dance because that’s how we fight back most effectively.

As the year 5784 comes to a close, we should look back at the year that stung and didn’t live up to the promises it held for us at the beginning. We had 21 days filled with hopes and dreams of a new year and a new beginning. We held onto those precious hopes and dreams and expected the road ahead would be easier than the one we had just finished. On the 22^nd day of the year, all those hopes and dreams were ripped from our grasp. It’s hard to accept and believe that we’ll be concluding this year and beginning the next with all of this still happening. The world wants us to move on and just accept that our neighbors are depraved murderers who seek our destruction in so many ways. But our love for who we are, and for our right to exist as a free people, is so much greater than their hatred and we will never back down from our resolve.

I invite all of you to join me and the rest of the community as we gather together and celebrate all of the holidays for ourselves, for all of those who came before us, and on behalf of those who no longer can.