Our July newsletter covers the entire summer, and will carry us almost to the beginning of the High Holidays.
“Too soon!” I hear you cry. “The summer has just begun, and already you’re talking repentance?!”
But this year, through a quirk of the Jewish calendar, the autumn holidays are very early – with Rosh Hashanah falling on the weekend following Labor Day (the spring holidays, on the other hand, and next year’s autumn holidays, will be relatively late, but that’s a topic for another time). As I write in late June, the Sisterhood has already begun work on the New Year’s Greeting Book, we have already contracted with ourHigh Holiday cantor and Yom Kippur cellist, letters are already going out from Mija and Chick to invite members for High Holiday honors, and of course I’ve started thinking about High Holiday sermons (anything in particular you want me to address? I’d love to hear from you!).
It is traditional to begin personal preparations a full month before Rosh Hashanah (mid-August this year), with daily blowing of the shofar calling us to an introspective practice of cheshbon hanefesh – literally, a “spiritual accounting.” Once again this summer, those of us who would like some company on this journey will get together for a “High Holiday Journey” class after kiddush on Saturdays, to take advantage of the opportunity offered by this special time of year.
Some say that the High Holiday season begins even earlier. Rabbi Alan Lew, in his excellent book This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation, suggests that the period of teshuvah truly starts three weeks earlier, on the fast day of Tisha B’Av (July 23 this year). On this day we commemorate the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, as well as many other calamities in Jewish history. Symbolically, the day offers us an opportunity to face the brokenness of our world – both the violence and destruction we see around us, and the pain and suffering we carry inside us. We spend most of our lives building metaphorical walls to protect ourselves from this pain, but, as researcher Brené Brown has shown, it’s not possible to avoid our negative emotions without also walling off the positive ones. Once a year our tradition invites us to break down the walls, let our guard down, and truly feel our lives – the good so much sweeter as it comes along with the rest.
I would like to invite you to join me on July 18, the shabbat preceding Tisha B’Av, in embracing the cycles of love and loss through a workshop making “comfort shawls” with my friend Marge Eiseman, which will serve to kick off this season of “teshuvah” – of returning to our selves.
Wishing you a full and joyful summer,
Reb Josh
