 | As August begins, already we're on the High Holy Day runway. It always feels too soon, and this year the holidays come "early." In the last two years, our holiday seasons explored themes of love and strength. The world has needed both, and so have we. For 5787, it's time to renew balance. |
By Rabbi David
Happy August, Shir Ami! I hope these summer days are bright and sweet for you and your loved ones.
It's become my annual practice to focus a column on the upcoming High Holy Days around six weeks before Rosh Hashanah. Summertime focus on the "autumn" holidays always feels too early, but this year Erev Rosh Hashanah falls on September 11 – which means that the start of August is six weeks out. Even if it feels early, it's time.
This column mentions pre-holiday runway items, then delves into our upcoming journey – our theme, what will be the same and what will shift, and how to make the most of this Season of Meaning. This column attempts to be comprehensive, so thank you in advance for taking the time to read it.
From my heart to yours, I send blessings for a שנה טובה ומתוקה / shanah tovah um'tukah – a good and sweet new year of seeking and finding balance anew.
Happy August, Shir Ami! I hope these summer days are bright and sweet for you and your loved ones.
It's become my annual practice to focus a column on the upcoming High Holy Days around six weeks before Rosh Hashanah. Summertime focus on the "autumn" holidays always feels too early, but this year Erev Rosh Hashanah falls on September 11 – which means that the start of August is six weeks out. Even if it feels early, it's time.
This column mentions pre-holiday runway items, then delves into our upcoming journey – our theme, what will be the same and what will shift, and how to make the most of this Season of Meaning. This column attempts to be comprehensive, so thank you in advance for taking the time to read it.
From my heart to yours, I send blessings for a שנה טובה ומתוקה / shanah tovah um'tukah – a good and sweet new year of seeking and finding balance anew.
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August Runway Dates & Events
Have you registered for the High Holy Days? We need your registrations ASAP to ensure proper preparations. Please click here to register.
August 3 continues our High Holy Day runway series (Tuesdays 7:00pm until Sept. 8). This year's series, "Worth a Thousand Words," explores the spiritual images of the core High Holy Day liturgy and how we can use them to power our experience of this sacred season. Entire series is free for members, $120 for guests. Please click here to register.
August 7 is the deadline for Yizkor tributes. Board leadership set this deadline so that Shir Ami's hardworking volunteers can fully honor everyone's loved ones and also attend to their own High Holy Day preparations. Thank you for honoring this holy gavul (boundary). Please consult the newsletter for instructions.
August 28 "Back to Shul" Barbecue. Deep thanks to Abby & Howie Ross for opening their home for a "back to shul" pre-Shabbat barbecue at 6:00pm August 28. Registration required by August 25 via email to Abby ([email protected]).
August 3 continues our High Holy Day runway series (Tuesdays 7:00pm until Sept. 8). This year's series, "Worth a Thousand Words," explores the spiritual images of the core High Holy Day liturgy and how we can use them to power our experience of this sacred season. Entire series is free for members, $120 for guests. Please click here to register.
August 7 is the deadline for Yizkor tributes. Board leadership set this deadline so that Shir Ami's hardworking volunteers can fully honor everyone's loved ones and also attend to their own High Holy Day preparations. Thank you for honoring this holy gavul (boundary). Please consult the newsletter for instructions.
August 28 "Back to Shul" Barbecue. Deep thanks to Abby & Howie Ross for opening their home for a "back to shul" pre-Shabbat barbecue at 6:00pm August 28. Registration required by August 25 via email to Abby ([email protected]).
* * *
Our Theme for 5787
Many of you have shared how you feel it sometimes – the world off-kilter, our planet jolting, our civic space ailing, our newsfeeds disturbing, the Mideast poised on the brink, family and friends going astray, we ourselves going astray.
Societies reach inflection points of change, and so do people. What worked before doesn't work now. Relationships and values, habits and priorities, character and emotions, what we believe in and what we can believe in – so much is changing, sometimes with dizzying speed.
Of course we feel it. The pace of it all sends hearts, minds and attention flitting from thing to thing like the childhood game whack-a-mole.
Many of you have shared how sometimes the world feels like it's lost perspective, regularity, soul and balance. From planet to peoplehood to community to self, nowadays much seems the very opposite of balance.
Which is why our High Holy Day theme for 5787 will be balance.
Together we will explore balance and its discontents, how we restore lost balance, and what might be even more important than balance. Is the balance we most crave just nostalgia by another name, a yearning for easier or better times (real or imagined)? How can we wisely shift balance to serve us today and tomorrow rather than only yesterday or yesteryear?
Along the way, we will explore the Jewish spirituality of Tiferet, our capacity to seek and shift balance wisely, to deepen our intellectual, emotional and spiritual center of gravity so we can harmonize and balance the sometimes competing forces of our lives. We associate Tiferet with heartspace, our inner fulcrum like the fulcrum or pivot of a playground seesaw always seeking to find balance.
With Tiferet we will turn inward, evolve perspective, get unstuck, change habits and realign for a new balance worthy of our best selves calling us into the year ahead. And as for us as individuals, so too for our expanding circles of family, community, peoplehood, nation and planet. All are prone to lose balance.
Soon the shofar will summon us home to ourselves and each other, to find balance anew for a world that needs all the balanced love, beauty and healthy transformation we can give. With tremendous gratitude for our community and the opportunity to serve, I look forward to sharing this journey with you and your loved ones.
P.S. As I do each year, the graphic above hints at the arc of sermons and discussions from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, each of them developing our theme.
Societies reach inflection points of change, and so do people. What worked before doesn't work now. Relationships and values, habits and priorities, character and emotions, what we believe in and what we can believe in – so much is changing, sometimes with dizzying speed.
Of course we feel it. The pace of it all sends hearts, minds and attention flitting from thing to thing like the childhood game whack-a-mole.
Many of you have shared how sometimes the world feels like it's lost perspective, regularity, soul and balance. From planet to peoplehood to community to self, nowadays much seems the very opposite of balance.
Which is why our High Holy Day theme for 5787 will be balance.
Together we will explore balance and its discontents, how we restore lost balance, and what might be even more important than balance. Is the balance we most crave just nostalgia by another name, a yearning for easier or better times (real or imagined)? How can we wisely shift balance to serve us today and tomorrow rather than only yesterday or yesteryear?
Along the way, we will explore the Jewish spirituality of Tiferet, our capacity to seek and shift balance wisely, to deepen our intellectual, emotional and spiritual center of gravity so we can harmonize and balance the sometimes competing forces of our lives. We associate Tiferet with heartspace, our inner fulcrum like the fulcrum or pivot of a playground seesaw always seeking to find balance.
With Tiferet we will turn inward, evolve perspective, get unstuck, change habits and realign for a new balance worthy of our best selves calling us into the year ahead. And as for us as individuals, so too for our expanding circles of family, community, peoplehood, nation and planet. All are prone to lose balance.
Soon the shofar will summon us home to ourselves and each other, to find balance anew for a world that needs all the balanced love, beauty and healthy transformation we can give. With tremendous gratitude for our community and the opportunity to serve, I look forward to sharing this journey with you and your loved ones.
P.S. As I do each year, the graphic above hints at the arc of sermons and discussions from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, each of them developing our theme.
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