It’s been wild. It’s been uplifting. It’s been joyous. One hundred and sixty Jews joined us throughout Rosh Hashana for meaningful services, delicious meals memorable Tashlich experience and of course the annual Shofar in the Park at Lindley. I was inspired by the souls on fire who showed up to celebrate the New Year. During these Ten Days of Teshuva, Chavie hosted a marvelous Challah Bake event for women and girls on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the men enjoyed our eighth Mensch Club at the home of the Lifson’s. the spirit of renewal can be felt in the air and it’s awesome. Personally, I enjoyed the extra prayers we say during this time, including Avinu Malkeinu twice each day, especially the words “Our Father, our King, bring us back to You in wholehearted repentance.”

I love coming home. I love feeling at home.

This “Shabbos Shuva” is infused with a focus on Teshuva, the ability for each of us to return to who we are at our core, the essence of our holy self. Hashem knows how to give us consequences for moral failures, but despite knocking us into shape, He never stops wanting us to come back home. I need my kid to learn their lesson, I need them to do better next time, but I also never want to lose my connection. In our daily morning prayers, in the Nefilas Apayim section of the daily Tachanun prayer we say, “God will rescue Israel from all who oppress it. God will rescue Israel from all its sins.” These statements, taken from Psalm 25 and Psalm 130 respectively, are clear in their structured order: first Hashem must redeem His people from their challenges and then we will be redeemed from our sins. We will change our ways fully only once we are home.

There is a recent Jewish hit song, not from Macklemore but from Hanan Ban Ari. It’s called Hashiveinu and it has swept the entirety of the Jewish world. The lyrics are from Lamentations, and they are straightforward, “Return us, God, to you and we will return; renew our days as of old”. Why does G-d go above and beyond to bring us home? In the words of Tzvi Freeman, “There’s nothing that matches the joy when a lost child returns home. And you are that child. Because your soul began within Gd. And she descended into this world to inhabit a body and live as though a stranger to the heavens, captive of a futile dream, journeying upon many winding and perilous roads…Until waking up one day and realizing that none of these lead back home. And now, every day, with every prayer of your heart, with every word of Torah upon your lips, with every mitzvah and good deed you fulfill, You are coming home. There can be no greater joy—above and below.

Hashiveinu!

May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Mashiach speedily. May G-d protect the armed forces of Israel and the United States wherever they may be!

‍

I remember that moment like it was yesterday.

I was in Oklahoma City, helping for the High Holy Days, when my buddy Ovadia, the local Shliach, barged into my room, heading up to his office, because something just happened in New York. My family was in New York, fear was real, phones were down, but within a few hours I knew that my parents and siblings were fine. Yet, I knew that our country was reeling, so many lives taken by Islamic terrorists; it would never be the same. That evening I joined Ovadia at the home of a local Jew, Dr. Joel Corn, to watch the evening news and see what was going on in NY, DC and Pennsylvania. It was hard to fathom this type of evil, barbarity, the same evil that we saw raise its ugly head twenty-two years later on October 7th in Israel.

Good people can’t understand evil.

This week’s double Torah portion, Nitzavim-Vayelech, which is always read before Rosh Hashana, introduces us to the possibility of Teshuva, to regret our past, change our ways and commit to a proper future. The verse says, “And the Lord, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you may love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life.” We work hard to rectify our past and when Hashem sees our genuine effort, He boosts our ability for change because He wants us close to Him. Teshuva is brutal, changing habits is difficult, but a living being must always grow. I look back at certain behaviors of my youth, including carrying grudges and being unforgiving, and I think about how awful that was and how glad I am to be changing and working to be more refined in my thought, speech and action.

If you’re looking to make a 5787 resolution, let it be this: It’s easy for most of us to condemn evil. It’s easy for most of us to walk away from institutions that promote Jew hatred, it’s easy to for most of us abhor cruelty and savagery. Yet, it’s a lot harder to change our own inner core to be brighter and healthier. It’s harder to find the character traits within ourselves that are detestable and willing to change them. Victor Frankel wrote that “When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves”. I would disagree. We don’t need to wait for the outside to be unchangeable to focus inward, we should start the change within and everything around us will change as a result. September 11th showed us the power of evil, our response should be to experience the power of good, starting from within ourselves.

We owe it to the victims!

May G-d guard our brethren in Israel and the world over from harm and send us Mashiach speedily. May G-d protect the armed forces of Israel and the United States wherever they may be!

‍