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This week is the last Shabbat of 5784. This past year has been such a difficult one for us as a people. I remember when I first put the dog tag around my neck with prayers for the hostages in captivity, it felt like I was wearing a bowling ball around my neck. Heavy and inescapable, the weight of the plight of the hostages and all Jewish people pressed on my heart. While we have spent this month of Elul looking in the rearview mirror of our days, it is still hard to carry that weight, but as we approach the Days of Awe we have the opportunity to shift.

As we enter this final Shabbat, I am thankful for the respite Shabbat has provided this past year. No matter how horrible the news was, coming together to pray and sing on Shabbat was sometimes the only high point of the week. It came reliably and often saved our tired and weary spirits. Tomorrow night is the last in the year-long series of Shabbatot that comforted and held us through this very trying year. At its end on Saturday evening, we will celebrate Selichot, our official start to the Holy Days. It is a beautiful evening that I encourage you to take part in. We will not only ceremonially change our Torah mantles to white, but we will also hear from some very special members of our congregation. They will speak about experiences that forever changed them personally and Jewishly and will most certainly inspire that this coming year might also be one of change and growth for us.

In that spirit of change, we enter the liminal space between this past year and the next. The Days of Awe, filled with communal introspection and goal setting, ripen us and the world for change. Each Shabbat has given us a glimpse of how beautiful the world can be – filled with unity, calm, gratitude and tenderness. Let this Shabbat be the harbinger of a year to come that is all those things and more. May its beauty light our way into the New Year – one of hope, redemption, and peace.

Shabbat Shalom,

Beth