Dear Family of friends,
As the the long-anticipated High Holidays finally arrive, I’d like to share with you a parable attribute to the 19th century Hasidic rabbi Hayyim of Zans:
A man had been wandering about in a forest for several days, not knowing which was the right way out. Suddenly he saw a man approaching him. His heart was filled with joy.
“Now I shall certainly find out which is the right way,” he thought to himself. When they neared one another, he asked the man, “Brother, tell me which is the right way. I have been wandering about in this forest for several days.”
Said the other to him, “Brother, I do not know the way out either. For I too have been wandering about here for many, many days. But this I can tell you: do not take the way I have been taking, for that will lead you astray. And now let us look for a new way out together.”1
And so it is with us.
As we enter this High Holiday season, none of us truly knows where we need to go. We each know that improvement is possible – for us and the world around us. We long for something better, and bring those longings with us as we enter the synagogue. But even though many pundits and self-help books claim to have all the answers, none can truly tell you what is right for you, and I won’t try to tell you either. What I can tell you is this: I am searching just as you are, and I know the way forward will be easier to find when we search for it together.
Wishing you a productive high holiday search, and may your soul guide you to a Shannah Tovah umetukah — a good, sweet year!
~ Reb Josh
1. This telling of the parable is taken from the book Days of Awe by S.Y. Agnon
