Dear WJC Family,
Pitka Tava! Today is HoShanah Rabbah, the last day of the intermediate days of Sukkot, and that is the traditional blessing for today. In Yiddish it is a guten kvittel. Both literally mean “a good note.” HoShanah Rabbah is considered the last day of the season of judgment, one last chance to get written in the book of life. Tradition has it that even after a judgment was rendered it could be reversed until the king wrote it on paper and sent it out to the provinces to be carried out. HoShanah Rabbah is that last moment of writing and sending the judgment, one last chance to be sealed for a good year.
HoSHanah Rabbah also leads into the second Yom Tovim (sacred times observed like Shabbat) of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret Wednesday night to Thursday and Simchat Torah Thursday night to Friday. Though these days are designed to be smachot, happy times, it is obviously hard to muster the simchadik feelings this year. Shemini Atzeret is the first yahrzeit of those who died on October 7th and who could imagine then that a year would pass and we would still be praying and pining for the hostages to come home.
As with all of the holidays in the last year, and especially the High Holidays, it has been a challenge to decide what observances are appropriate and how they should be contextualized in this moment. What we have discovered in the last year is that the answer to how we should observe these days is different for everyone. So, as we have been doing, we will do our best to serve the needs of as many of our constituents as possible and if we miss the mark for you, our apologies in advance. For further reading on the subject, I recommend these articles Hadar recently published: How to celebrate Simchat Torah when our hearts are weighed down by grief and Cries of sadness and shouts of joy.
Appropriately, Shemini Atzeret morning services include the Yizkor Memorial prayers. We will have our early service, as is our custom, at 7am. At that service we will also briefly mention those we remember who were murdered a year ago. At the regular 9:15 Yom Tov service, there will be a more extensive ceremony mentioning the victims of a year ago.
Simchat Torah is another matter. On that day it is a mitzvah to celebrate, even when our hearts are heavy. Thursday night we have our Simchat Torah Extravaganza for kids and their families and will dance with the Sifrei Torah following that starting at 7pm. That night we will dance with the Torah and celebrate our good fortune to be among those connected to it through generations and spirit. In the morning we will celebrate again, with one caveat – the fourth of the seven times we march around with the Sifrei Torah will be a “silent hakafah” in memory of last Simchat Torah with a special liturgy created for the moment. After that we will recapture our joy and sing and dance for the last three hakafot.
We will then continue with our ceremony honoring Stu Seltzer and Linda Alpert with the special aliyot for their extraordinary efforts on behalf of the people in Israel over the last year and all the other amazing volunteer work they do. I hope you will come to help us honor these incredible deserving honorees!
The Jewish people are well-practiced at working to squeeze the joy and holiness out of everything we can, especially during difficult times – a hard-earned skill indeed. I hope you will join us as we reach for the beauty and simcha of our tradition on what will be difficult days of memory.
Chag sameach,