This high holiday season, we will stand together as one congregation. Resolute and united. There is something extremely powerful about the fact that both Erev Rosh Hashanah and Kol Nidre are ONLY HAPPENING IN SEATTLE! We will be one congregation, in the truest sense of the word. Our Temple leadership, our Board, every member, our children, our families, our friends, our guests in hope and friendship—all of us will gather as a community for one final high holiday season in our historic sanctuary as it is today.
It is appropriate that the Torah portion that precedes the high holidays calls to mind these exact themes: “Atem nitzavim ha’yom—today you take a stand, together…l’avr’cha b’brit Adonai Eloheicha—to enter into a covenant with Adonai your God to establish the promise bestowed upon our ancestors…with both those who stand here today and those who are not yet here with us.”
These days of awe are a stark reminder that the work we do today is what we are building for tomorrow. We are not obligated to complete the work of establishing our community, yet we are not free to desist from it. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I wish you all a shana tova u’m’tukah—a sweet, happy, healthy new year!