This past Monday, I was invited to participate in a very sweet ceremony at the Bornblum Jewish Community School, blessing the new Kindergarten students and their parents as they embarked on their journey of Jewish education. I was surprisingly emotional about the first day of school, especially considering the fact that I wasn’t sending any children off to school. There’s just something about the first day that feels special.
All the parents held a tallit over the heads of the new Kindergarten students, while the rest of the student body stood around them in a circle. I looked upon these eager 5-year-olds and marveled at how brave they are. I blessed the children (and their parents) with courage, ometz lev, because school can sometimes be scary. Truth be told, most new beginnings can be scary. There’s an Israeli saying that often comes up this time of year - kol hatchalot kashot- all beginnings are hard.
Some of the transitions that we go through are obvious in their difficulty: starting at a new school, leaving a job, moving homes. These are the shifts that we easily witness others go through. There are other new beginnings that are often just as challenging, beginnings that others don’t witness: trying to recharge a relationship, beginning a new medication, changing a destructive thought-pattern. These beginnings, too, are hard and can be scary. Just like a new student in school, we ask questions like, will I succeed?, will it be hard?, and will I be lonely along the way?
The kindergarten teachers I saw on Monday morning could not have been more loving and encouraging, and I’m reminded how we need to be that for ourselves and for each other. As we muster up the courage, ometz lev, to create our own new beginnings this time of year, let’s be gentle and loving to ourselves and to others. In this month of Elul, I bless us all with courage, because new beginnings can be scary.
