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Rabbi Lisa's Message

9/25/24


The shofar blasts! A new year is around the corner!  Do you hear the call? Are you ready? Maimonides, 12th century Spanish Rabbi and philosopher implores us: 


“Wake up, you sleepers from your sleep, you slumberers from your slumber!” 


The shofar pierces through the haze of habit. Whatever unhealthy and unwanted routines we have fallen into over the past year, we have the opportunity to interrupt their pattern and make a course correction. 


On a larger scale, Rosh Hashanah gives us the opportunity to reset from a year full of tragedy and horror. While the events of the world may not change with the turning of the new year, WE can change. We can release the stress, the worry, the anger, the outrage. There is only so much a human can carry over the course of a year. So we lighten that load as well with 

a deep cleansing breath of newness, of hope, of faith. 


But first we must rouse ourselves and pull ourselves out of well worn grooves. What ever habits and routines we have created by plugging into the world’s stress day in and day out for the last year, we take a break during Rosh Hashanah. We take all the heaviness to the water’s edge and we cast it off during Tashlich. 


Consider one of the many names for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Harat Olam, which translates to something like “birth day of the world” or “the day of the creation of the world.” If we enter Rosh Hashanah with the mindset that the  world is being created anew, we can place ourselves in that re-creation. 


We don’t have to bring our old routines and habits into 5785. We can leave the heavy bags of last year’s challenges, mistakes, regrets, losses at the door. Lightening the load will bring a new self forward.


Yet  if we don’t wake up, pay attention,and make adjustments, we will unknowingly schlep our heavy habits and looming darkness with us. So let us attune ourselves to the shofar’s cry and jump into the opportunity of a new year, a fresh start, a new page, maybe even a new chapter!


If you have not yet heard the sound of the shofar, you can catch our daily shofar blowing for the month of Elul (the month that precedes Rosh Hashanah) on Facebook right HERE. We will continue to sound the shofar through next Wednesday morning, 10/3. Then, you will have the opportunity to hear the shofar blasts during Rosh Hashanah morning services on Thursday, 10/4.


May the shofar reach us all and inspire the changes we need to make for the new year.


“Wake up, you sleepers from your sleep, you slumberers from your slumber!” 





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