Erev Rosh haShannah 5775
September 23, 2014
Dear Chevreh,
It's just amazing.
Look at the photos on the right and soak in the holiness of our beautiful home, where the chairs are set up, the Torah's are rolled, and the spirit is so alive. All that is waiting for our collective energy to make the very air tremble with hope and possibility for the year to come. It is easy to focus on the parts of the past year that have been hard, the very real news that continues to touch our lives. All of that is real, and it would be a
mistake to see Rosh haShannah as an escape from the world, a world so very much in need of healing and restoration.
And so I write to you with a different intention, one born of a heart that aches with each of yours for a better year to come than the one we are releasing into history. The deepest hope I can name, dear friends, is that we strengthen ourselves as individuals, families, and as a sacred community, so that we can engage in the very urgent work of bending the arc of the universe an inch closer to justice. The impact Netivot Shalom has on the world is a serious one, and
requires renewal. This Rosh haShannah, that is what I wish for you, for me, for us all.
May the sound of the Shofar crack through the scars of our hearts and help us feel fiercely, hope once again, and recommit to living holy lives. Each of us is, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel z"l told us, "a fragment of the Divine, a fraction of God's power at our disposal." A tall order to be sure, but we're designed to embody precisely that kind of potential. Let's love each other well, feel the possibilities of the year, and then get back to work.
We are in for an amazing year at Netivot Shalom, chevreh - I'm so excited for us to get started!
May it be a year of health, a year of safety, and a year of Peace for you, for those you love and those you've not yet met, for our country, for Israel, and for the whole entire world.
Shannah Tovah,
Rabbi Creditor
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