Daphna, Rabbi Misha, Rotem Levin and Osama Iliwat on Yom Kippur. Photo by Gili Getz

Dear friends,

It’s like some kind of ancient spell. You say certain words, throw some ingredients into water, wear certain clothes and put your fist to your chest. And as your body empties, your ears, mind and heart open up and some transformation occurs. This year more than others I find myself changed from these holidays, opened up, refreshed, ready to live as best I can. I sit in my Sukkah with gratitude.

What an incredible 10 days we had together.

We began with Rabbi Jim’s poetic riff acknowledging how tough this past year was, and how difficult it is to feel like something ended when the war continues. Aviya came up to me after our first service of the year and asked what many were struggling with: How am I supposed to celebrate the new year in the midst of this war?

The following morning by the river we sang The Times They Are A-Changin' amidst Shofar blasts, and marveled at our next generation chanting Torah (Cyrus! Barbara!) and performing a play of Jacob’s dream (Dov!).

After the grownups moved on that day, there was a special moment with fifteen teens who stayed for Tashlich. Before we did Tashlich, I asked my nieces, Laila and Be’er who are visiting from Israel, to describe what the last year has looked like over there. They described waking up at 6am in a tent on the beach 10 miles north of Gaza on the morning of 10/7 to sirens, and the continued fear they lived with. The local teens shared with them the kind of things they’ve been seeing all year on social media, of families in Gaza and Lebanon crying for help. It was a real moment of balancing each other out by listening openly.

On Kol Nidrei night everything was washed away by Dana’s singing and Saskia’s bass. But by nighttime, I felt a real Yom Kippur reckoning set in. I asked myself if I had mis-spoken, if my words that night about the occupation lacked precision, if the heaviness I felt in my heart was what the holiday was about, or if it’s about dispelling that heaviness; Is it about guilt or about forgiveness?

The following morning the sweetness emerged rapidly though, in the form of twenty teens standing proudly in front of the community and chanting: “And you shall love!” Veahavta! That overwhelming sight gave us all so much naches, contentment, peace. From then on we were looking forward, not back. We sang the Mi Khamocha with Adeline, Lucy and Zoe. We listened to 14 year olds Emilio and Adeline chant Torah, we witnessed Amy chant Torah for the 20 somethingth year in a row, and we watched Chloe and Naomi perform Jacob and Esau’s reconciliation as a piece of ritual theater.

When Osama and Rotem took the stage to tell us how they transformed from fighters to peace activists, we were ready for their message. “I learned that Judaism is a religion of love,” Osama, whose children deal with discrimination and harassment from religious Jews on an almost daily basis in the West Bank, told us. There was that moment, in which he paused, remained silent for several seconds, and finally said in Hebrew : Peace will yet come upon us, עוד יבוא שלום עלינו. That moment was what this day was invented for: knowing wrong, knowing change, knowing hope. (If you missed it HERE's the recording)

When the holiday came to close, after a raucous Neila party, it was especially moving to have the Shul’s co-founder, Holly Gewandter blow the shofar as she has done for most of the years that the Shul has been around - but this was the first year I experienced it in person. 25 years of making magic rose to the heavens like a prayer. When we took that gorgeous Mandala of flowers that Suzanne led us in creating, and shook it and blew it to the wind, we let go of our attachments and our obstacles, and invited new beauty into the world.

Thank you all so much. Especially our ritual and musical team: Daphna, Yonatan, Dana, Saskia, Tripp, Arnan and Yuval, and to my closest partners on bringing this all to life: Susan, Itamar and Judy. Deep gratitude to everyone who helped, supported, chanted, read, led, organized, set up, tore down, taught, prayed and sang.

I hope you all come by to volunteer tomorrow at the soup kitchen in honor of Sukkot.

Happy Sukkot!

Rabbi Misha

Gratitude