Shanah Tovah from Rabbi Fellman

Soon the air will become crisper, the leaves will change, and the days will grow shorter. And soon we will come together as a sacred community to celebrate the new year of 5785. I truly hope that the holidays are a celebration this year, for we have endured so much sadness and pain over the last year.

A central theme of the High Holy Days concerns the Jewish idea of Teshuva. Often, we define the word as repentance, and we talk of the need to own our successes and failures fully. But Teshuva can be much more, and this year in particular, the multivalence of the word can be particularly helpful.

In addition to seeing Teshuva as repentance, one can also understand it as return. While repentance carries with it a connotation or even a denotation of judgment and error, Teshuva as return lacks that element. Teshuva can be a return to ideas or beliefs, a return to an earlier version of ourselves, or even a return to the essence of who we are. 

When we choose this path of return, we leave the world of judgment and instead enter a world of opportunity. To what can we return? To what do we want to return? How can we make that turn, go back to our deepest selves, and welcome the new year with hope?

It would be so easy for each of us to come to the High Holy Days this year filled with animosity, anger, resentment, fear, and so much more. After all, we have endured a difficult year with no end of so many challenges in sight. 

Instead of that easy path, I invite you to join me in viewing our gatherings this Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur as opportunities to return to our best selves, to a world filled with possibility and hope, a new year beckoning us to put aside our difficulties and embrace all that is available. Yes, of course, we will need reminders to stay on this path of return instead of the turning into the cul-de-sac or dead end of repentance. Yes, we will veer off course and need to return again and again. Together we can make this new year better, stronger, more soulful, and healthier for all of us. We will start with the decision to return. I can’t wait to join with you as we welcome 5785 and all that it promises.

Melissa, Zach, Jacob, and Lizzie join me in wishing you a L’shanah Tovah u’Metuka—a sweet and happy new year.

Rabbi Daniel J. Fellman