September 2026
CONNECTING WITH THE HIGH HOLY DAYS
Dear Shomrim,
The High Holy Days can mean different things to different people. For some Jews, the High Holy Days can have profound religious meaning and offer the possibility to come closer to God. For others, it is an opportunity to get together with family and friends.
And for others, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur represent the last, albeit strong, bastion in their Jewish identity. Jews who otherwise don’t feel connected to the synagogue or to a traditional Jewish life will make a point of coming to services for the High Holy Days. This phenomenon is not due to shorter services. Friday night services or even Shabbat morning services are oriented in a more accessible manner than the somewhat intimidating High Holy Days services, where the melody, the prayer books, and even the familiar faces change.
Perhaps it is this awe-like atmosphere of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, suffused with memories from our youth, which offers the opportunity for mediation and introspection. The length of the services, the solemn-sounding melodies of the High Holy Days, and the Rabbi’s hopefully inspiring words present to the participants an opportunity to reevaluate their priorities and to reconnect with the important things in life.
A story by Rabbi Richard Kushner, author of many books, including When Bad Things Happen to Good People and When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough, comes to my mind. A story about reshaping priorities:
I was sitting on a beach one summer day, writes Rabbi Kushner, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. Just as they had nearly finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a heap of sand. They were diligently constructing a detailed sandcastle by the water’s edge, complete with gates, towers, moats, and internal passages. I expected the children to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they surprised me. Instead, they ran laughing hand in hand up the shore away from the water. I realized they had taught me an important lesson. All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spend so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships with other people endure. Eventually, the wave will arrive and dismantle our hard-earned achievements. When that moment arrives, only the individual who has someone’s hand to hold will be able to experience joy.
Somewhere inside us all, there is a profound knowledge of what really matters, and this knowledge allows us to relate readily to Rabbi Kushner’s story. However, during the year we are too busy “extinguishing fires” and taking care of the “urgent,” so we end up neglecting the “important.” When we buy High Holy Days tickets, we buy an invitation to stop and contemplate what really matters. The decorum of the services, the Rabbi’s insights, and the melodious voice of the Cantor are merely aids to help us do our homework, homework that nobody can do for us.
The days ahead have the power to help us give new meaning to our lives. With God’s help we’ll take advantage of them!
May HaShem bless you and all your loved ones with a good, healthy, meaningful, and sweet year!
From My Heart,
Rabbi Manes Kogan