Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

As we come into the Yamim Noraim/Days of Awe, the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, we confront the challenge of Cheshbon HaNefesh, the accounting of our souls. This is the difficult work of pondering our behavior over the past year, showing remorse for what we have done wrong and could have done better, and committing ourselves to being different and better in the coming year.

Having gone through — and still in the midst of — a pandemic, this has been a year like no other in our lifetimes. In a normal year, doing the work of Cheshbon HaNefesh can feel like a heavy burden. My admonition, as we approach Yom Kippur next week, is that rather than being overwhelmed by our inadequacies in the year to come, we just strive to do a little better.

This begins with finding ways to connect or reconnect as a synagogue community. Let us work for simple acts of caring for one another, and recognize that each of us, in our own way, is feeling some sense of uncertainty if not fear. We can see our way to better days ahead if we just can do a little better than we did the year before.

To everyone, a Shanah Tovah U’Metukah, a Good Year, and especially in the year 5782 to come, a Sweet Year.