“Let us search and investigate our ways, and return to YHWH” (Lam. 3:40).
Shana Tova u’Metuka! Wishing you all a happy and sweet New Year. May 5781 bring blessings for all and may the pain of this past year soon become a faint memory.
I am excited to offer a short course as we navigate this season of return (teshuvah). The first session is entitled “The Beloved: Preparations.” The title alludes to an acrostic of the Hebrew spelling of the month of Elul which connects it to the verse, “I am my Beloved and my Beloved is mine” (Song of Songs 6:3). The beloved is God and reminds us of the commitment to “love YHWH, your God, with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might” (Deut. 6:5). This session will be devoted to preparing for our encounter with the Beloved.
The second session, meeting on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, is entitled “The Coronation: Celebrations.” This points to the ancient characterization of Rosh Hashanah as a time of God’s coronation and the related celebrations. This is a good time to catch up on episodes of The Crown (!).
Session three is entitled “The Bridge: Explorations” and refers to the ten days of repentance (aseret yemei teshuvah) between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. These days serve as a ‘bridge’ between the beginning and the end of the High Holy Days and invite us into ever deeper exploration leading up to the crescendo of Yom Kippur.
Finally, session four is entitled “The Arrival: Unifications.” In this session we will have arrived at the final point of our four-part journey, hopefully having achieved some amount of unification, on this Day of ‘At-One-Ment.’ Join us in white, if you’re feeling it.
