One final blessing before Rosh HaShannah!

 

Three Prayers for This Strangest of New Years

 Three Prayers for This Strangest of New Years

Rabbi Menachem Creditor

NYJewish Week | September 16, 2020

jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/three-prayers-for-this-strangest-of-new-years

This strangest of years, in which expectations of any kind couldn’t possibly have predicted our reality, we find ourselves – at least I do – craving the sound of the shofar and the sway of fellow daveners. Has there ever been such a year?

Leaders of Jewish communities of every kind are working overtime to meet these every-year needs in a blend of tradition and innovation that would fill our ancestors’ hearts to overflowing. Look at the Jewish passion and spiritual creativity flooding the internet – has there ever been such a year?

Praise: To all those whose intense leadership became even more intense with the launch of the High Holidays at last week’s Selichot services. To you all — rabbis, cantors, educators, executive directors, youth professionals, volunteer leaders, fundraisers — you are giving everything you’ve got to lift the whole world up, screen by screen, community by community. We see you, we honor you, we bless you. Amen.

Request: May we learn/remember how to open up our hearts and minds and souls. May we reclaim the headlines with the shocking good we’ll do. May our children inherit some good decisions we’ll make to offset our countless mistakes. May we take really good care of each other and heal this fragile world. Amen.

Gratitude: For the blessing of one more year, one more day, one more breath, may we be ever thankful. And may we channel all the emotions coursing through our bodies to make this a year worth praying for. Amen.

One day before Rosh HaShannah, a blessing for health, silliness, seriousness, and hope!

 

Hearing the call, knowing we're there for each other... the Shofar is a sound-experience that can transcend any physical limitations, and bring us together, even and especially this year. Let's roar into Rosh HaShannah and birth a beautiful year for the whole world.... #ShannahTovah #BuildOnLove

from UJA-Federation NY: Wisdom in the Time of Corona - Reflections for 5781

Wisdom in the Time of Corona

Reflections for 5781

As we prepare to celebrate the High Holidays, UJA-Federation of New York is delighted to share an anthology of teachings given at our virtual UJA Community Pre-Shabbat Gatherings. We're grateful to all of the wonderful leaders who participated in this series from March to July, which brought teachers and listeners of all denominations and backgrounds to learn together.

Here you’ll find a sampling of the beautiful Torah and lessons shared over these past few months, covering an array of ideas. We hope you find meaning in the essays that follow, and that they continue to inspire hope, growth, and reflection during this time.

We’ve gained lessons in the preciousness of unity, the vitality of keeping an open imagination so that we can come together as a community again. May we be blessed as we take these steps to learn well from each other, and maybe to record what we are learning so that we can move forward, having internalized these lessons, and pass them on to generations to come.

https://www.ujafedny.org/reflections-for-5781

An exploration of humility and submission as necessary components for reawakening our collective potential to heal our world - from the special Aleinu in the Rosh Hashannah prayers.

 

Remembering well and fully is the best way to make good decisions for a healthy, holy future. May we do no harm, and may we do much good in the year to come, starting today! #BuildonLove