Rabbinic Reflections: Issue 175

September 1, 2023 (15 Elul 5783)

Parashat Ki Tavo - New Beginnings

Dear Friends,

I hope this correspondence finds you well and in good health. We happily invite you to join us this Saturday morning for in-person Shabbat services, which will take place in our beautiful sanctuary. Please make sure to read all synagogue emails for details regarding our upcoming High Holidays. We look forward to greeting you, either at Shul this Shabbat, or in a couple of weeks at the Fort Lee High School!

While officially on school-break during these past weeks, I nonetheless found myself each day preparing for an eventual return to campus. Hours were filled reading, researching, collaborating, and writing. Curricula were revisited, conversations were had, and Zoom meetings malfunctioned! Yet, before I blinked, this past Monday, I resumed my commute over the bridge and headed back to my truly sacred duties of teaching high-school Talmud and coordinating school-wide Tefilla (prayer) education at the Leffell School in Hartsdale, NY.

This past week during Faculty Institute, the long days were replete with meetings, lectures, presentations, and review sessions, all in anticipation of classes beginning on the Tuesday after Labor Day. In addition to welcoming new faculty members and assisting in their orientation, all staff members were introduced to the latest new technologies and software design systems, both guaranteed (!) to make the educational endeavor, modern, contemporary, and streamlined.

At the same time, as you can see from the photo above, while staff were diligently training, the halls were eerily silent. There was no commotion in the classrooms. There were no audible sounds of students rushing from place to place. There was no consistent chatter of Jewish teenagers kibbitzing, texting, posting, and socializing one with the other. I imagined to myself, what will it be like in just a few days, when all of our pupils return cacophonously to their “old stomping grounds” for a new beginning?

Hopefully, most of the kids will come back to the school feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. The halls will once again reverberate with laughter and palpable joy. Hopefully, each child will recognize that this year, through commitment, dedication, and focus, they will be blessed with a great academic experience. With the promise and potential of a new start, I trust that on Day One, each of my students will imagine receiving a solid A+ from me by the conclusion of the fall semester!

While you and I are not returning high-school sophomores, juniors, or seniors, it is arguable that as we approach the High Holy Days, we can nonetheless learn something by identifying with the aforementioned student experience. In fact, in the preface of the Yuntif, we too are now blessed with the opportunity to experience a powerful and hypothetically life-altering new beginning.

Many of you know that on the High Holy Days our Machzor is saturated with metaphors of humility: we are like sheep passing before Hashem our shepherd ( כבני מרום ) and, additionally, we are compared to clay in the potter’s hand ( כי הנה כחומר ).

So, here is my advice to the students at Leffell and to all of us: As students of Hashem, as we enter the proverbial Halls of Life to pray for a sweet New Year.

• As a student enters school for the first day with a sense of awe, so too, may we all enter our prayer space this year with a sense of יראה , reverence for God, the holiday, and our dedicated space of worship.

• As a student enters the doors of education relying on past knowledge and fundamentals, so too, may we employ our knowledge of Torah and Judaism, and use it as the bedrock for even greater תלמוד תורה, that is, study, self-growth, and personal reflection.
• As a student enters the halls deeply motivated to reconnect with קהילה or community, so too, may we come to Shul eager to reestablish our ties with our neighbors, clergy, and fellow congregants.
• As a student embraces an attitude of gratitude with the belief that the year will be filled with growth and blessing, so too may we enter the Jewish year with a sense of הודאה, divine thanks, for all the blessings we have received.
• As a student enters the semester primed to fulfill their social action obligations and service hours, so too, may we be primed to do our part as a congregation and continue the work of making the world a better place through our projects of Tikkun Olam (social action).
• In the spirit of the new semester and all new beginnings, I pray that thorough collective commitment, dedication, and focus, our New Year of 5784 will indeed be filled with Torah study, community building, humility, thanks, and appropriate reflections of reverence and awe. May we all merit to achieve an A+ in the year ahead.

Shabbat Shalom and Shanna Tova,

Rabbi Eric L. Wasser, EdD, Hon.DM
Tel: 201-562-5277
elw613@gmail.com

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