Clergy Blog

Shabbat Shalom,

This coming Wednesday we welcome in the new month of Cheshvan. Our ancient sages not-so-lovingly referred to this month as Mar-cheshvan, which means “bitter cheshvan.” After the month of Elul and its accompanying introspection, then the month of Tishrei, home to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Sukkot and Sh’mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, Cheshvan was seen as a bisl bitter, especially when balanced against the above litany of holidays. 

This Cheshvan God-willing will be less bitter than the last. Like many of you, I have been soaking in the videos of our hostages coming home, greeting their families and friends with joy, tears, and a depth of emotion that one cannot even begin to comprehend. There is a long way to go, but during those 24 hours of release, Jews across the world received a release as well. It was a reminder of how tied together we are as a people, how much our neshamas, our souls, are bound up with one another, and how we experience the breadth of life as a collective. 

Some say the High Holidays for a rabbi is like the Super Bowl. As a Vikings fan, I can’t relate to what it means to come out a winner in that regard, but I’ve always thought a better metaphor is a marathon (which I’ve also never run, but stick with me). There are peaks and valleys to the holidays, but the golden thread that runs through is the awareness that all of this is meant to be done as a collective. Tomorrow we begin the Torah anew and will read in the second chapter of Genesis “It is not good for a person to be alone.” Life is meant to be shared with others, and the holidays at their best fill up our tanks to make it through Mar-cheshvan and to go into the coming year holding on tightly to the values of love and friendship.

I am so looking forward to this coming year with all of you and in the perceived bitterness of Cheshvan, may you also find the sweet.

Shabbat Shalom,

Max