How wonderful to see everyone together. Parents reunited with children (as are my parents Bruce and Laurie Herman), siblings reunited with one another (as is my sister, Rachel Herman), cousins, uncles and aunts, grandparents and grandchildren. This is my favorite time of the year-beginning the Jewish New Year together as a congregational family.
For those with whom I have not yet had the chance to meet in person, I look forward to getting to know you over the course of 5784 and I also hope to deepen my connections with those who I had the privilege of meeting previously.
Please consider joining us at three events: the Kever Avot Memorial Service at Home of Peace Cemetery on Sunday at 11:00 am; Tashlich at Guy West Bridge Sunday at 5:00 pm; and at the west steps of the Capitol Monday at 6:00 pm for Memory and Hope One Year Later on October 7th; a candlelit vigil with songs, poetry and a communal Kaddish.
Today we celebrate the creation of humanity on the 6th day of creation. There’s a great story shared with me by Rabbi Rick Sherwin with which I want to start off my remarks.
After teaching the Biblical account of Creation, the teacher turned to her student and asked: “So tell me, who made you?” The pupil thought for a minute, then answered, “Well to tell you the truth, I am not made yet.”[1]
Each of us is a work in progress in this imperfect world. We have infinite potential to make a difference and to see our lives from an outlook of growth. Rabbi Jacob Rudin challenges us to be works in progress as we enter a new year. He writes:
How quickly the Rosh Hashanahs add themselves up. How swiftly, how silently, how relentlessly the years slip by. How lightly we say ‘let us wait until tomorrow.’ And maybe there is no tomorrow.
Rosh Hashanah is a reminder of this. We are a year older. Are we a year wiser? Wiser in the heart and the spirit?”
The years have taught me the infinite treasure which children are, the miracle of them, born in love, reared in affection. O, how much we take them from granted: the wonder of change, of growth from baby to child, to youth, to adult. We forget. We give way to thoughtlessness, to lack of patience, a failure to communicate, to understand, or, what is worse, a failure to try to understand.
I have learned that one of the best sounds in the world is the sound of a child’s voice, a voice clear and innocent and content, a harmony with joy and with love of companionship and devotion of a good home. I have learned that the sound of such voices never disappears. Open all the windows and all the doors. Let the years multiply themselves. Let the children grow up and marry and have homes of their own. The sound of them never fades, the song, the cry, their needs, their questioning. All remain, in the home which nurtured them, in the heart that brought them up. They never fly away.
How does one make these truths urgent upon the heart? Not to let a single shaft of golden light, lonely upon the earth, go unnoted, the springtime flower, the autumn leaf, the winter’s sky. Not to lose, for a single day, thankfulness for health and well-being.
The years have taught me that: to cherish every sight of a beloved’s face, to be grateful for beauty, to relish the sound of a child, to appreciate being able to walk from here to there. Such simple things, such lovely things, such precious things! And the years have taught me that people forget them. We learn with such difficulty, O Lord! In the New Year just beginning, let us not take them for granted, ever, for an hour or a day.”[2]
We continue to develop and strengthen ourselves, both remembering that there is always the potential for improvement and, equally if not more important, not to take the present moment for granted. We pray that each of us finds the wisdom inside ourselves and in these services, both the music and the content, to make a difference in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones. To help us do so, I am concluding with a poem from my grandmother, Lucille Frenkel, entitled “New Year Prayer 5734-1973.”
New Year Prayer 5734-1973
Another New Year
Marking passage of time,
A chance to reflect
And to question how I am
Passing my days
In my journey through time-
Do I value each moment
God sends to be mine?
Do I criticize much
Which I do not approve,
Instead of attempting
Myself to improve?
Another New Year
Marking passage of time
Holds the need to reflect
On my whole life’s design.[3]
[1] Rabbi Rick Sherwin, High Holy Day Stories, Page 23.
[2] Rabbi Jacob Philip Rudin, The Rabbis Speak, in Rabbi Jack Riemer High Holy Day Anthology
[3] Lucille Frenkel, A Jewish Adventure (Milwaukee, WI: The Eternity Press, 1983), pg. 133.
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