Shanah Tovah, dear friends. It’s been quite a year. It’s been a challenging year, and it’s been a year where I’ve had to push myself to find hope. I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder to positively look towards the future, to work to feel optimistic. But I’m heading into 5781 with a sense of hope that things for us, for our world, for all humanity, can be different.
You may have heard that this past week, Israel signed a peace deal with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House. This deal normalizes the relationship between Israel and the others, acting out of common interests, and hopefully creating more stability and positivity in the region.
My hope is that this is a good development for Israel and the Middle East. And it’s too soon to be sure of the long-term benefits. There are some explicit economic and political implications from the deal: expanded trade, travel, ambassadors, business deals. But there are other implications that are still possibilities, still unknowns. This deal has the power to lead to expanded peace in the region, peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
And so in this moment, the deal represents tremendous hope and possibility. It speaks to the fact that nations that had written each other off as potential partners, seemingly forever, have been able to find some common ground and build from there. It speaks to two entities who are willing to hear each other, to try and understand each other, to try and make each other and those around them better. Those elements are, not only on erev Rosh Hashanah but all year, the contours of teshuvah, of repentance, of repair.
A midrash teaches that God says to Israel, “My children, open for Me a window of repentance as narrow as the eye of a needle, and I will open for you gates through which wagons and coaches can pass” (Shir haShirim Rabbah, 5:2). We are God’s actors in the world, and it’s up to us to expand that needle-sized hole into a passageway for wagons of peace to come through.
The goal of all teshuvah, all repentance, is to bring greater listening, greater understanding, and improved relationships. I pray that this continues to be the case for Israel and her neighbors, and I pray that this is the case for each of us, in our own personal lives.
May this year be a good one for each of you and your families. A year of happiness, abundant blessing, and good health.
Shanah Tovah, Rabbi Sarit
Join us for davening throughout Rosh Hashanah at www.BSholom.org
Erev Rosh Hashanah, Friday, September 18th, 6:30PM Rosh Hashanah Day 1, Saturday, September 19th, 9:30AM Rosh Hashanah Day 2, Sunday, September 20th, 9:30AM
