Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

It is always a gift for me to gather with the Congregation Kol Ami community/family. Our High Holy Days — both our Rosh Hashanah celebration and our reflective, serious observance of Yom Kippur — are both given meaning by sharing them in community.

This point was driven home to me in our Yom Kippur study session. We kicked off the “How and Why of Prayer” by asking why we pray. Amongst the more pervasive answers was the draw that being in community has on motivating people to come and worship.

For myself, as I told the group, I don’t always have “aha moments” when I pray. But I always feel better when I do pray, grateful for the opportunity to be in community. It is the connection with community, regardless of our individual prayer styles, our individual joys and challenges, and our respective emotional states in the moment. We come into prayer with a need for connection. The connection is a shared connection with one another and with something bigger than ourselves.

As we enter Sukkot and the new year of 5785, may we connect with each other, and bring in people new to the Kol Ami family who both need community and understand that they are needed by the Kol Ami family.