WhatsApp is a brilliant way of communicating with family around the world. My extended family, which stretches from Los Angeles to Philadelphia, has a WhatsApp chat group where we share updates of our lives in real time.
Honorable Mensch-ion
Return Trip
Return trips are always harder than outgoing trips. When we leave for a destination, we are filled with anticipation and excitement.
Here I Am
When a teacher takes attendance, the student replies, “Here.” The student is articulating that their presence matters.
Crying & Laughing
Why do we have the different sounds of the shofar? The Rabbis answer that people around the world cry differently. Some moan, some sob, and some whimper. The shevarim and teruah calls echo those distinct manners of crying. Together on Rosh Hashana, we hear the cries of the world.
Commemorating 9/11
Rosh Hashana has two names: Yom Teruah, the day of the shofar blast, and Yom Hazikaron, the day of remembrance.
Handshakes
First days of school are always nerve wracking and exciting. In my middle and high school, there was a tradition on the first day. The senior class would line up in front of the school. Every single student and faculty member would walk down the line shaking the hands of each senior. We would gather as a school community and the headmaster would explain the history behind the handshake. The popular theory goes that by extending your empty right hand, a stranger could show that they were not holding weapons and bore no ill will toward one another. Another explanation is that the handshake was a symbol of good faith when making an oath or promise. When we clasp hands, we show that our word is a sacred bond.
Shofar is Here
When I was a child, an alarm clock sat on my bed stand. It was a real alarm clock-not a phone with a ring, but an old-fashioned clock with a bell. On some days, I dreaded that sound ringing in my ear, and on other days, I could not wait for the ring to wake me up for exciting days ahead.
Fear
On a family trip to San Francisco, we visited Alcatraz. As we walked up the steep hill to the cell block which housed the country’s top criminals, our tour guide said, “The guards and their families kept their doors unlocked at night—they knew the bad guys were all locked up.”
Prayer is a Gift
The Daat Zekenim teaches that there are seven different names that refer to prayer. The common word we use is tefilah. There is rina, joyous song, tzaakah, shouting out to God, nefilah, falling down, and several others. So why does Moses choose a techina, pleading with God when speaking before the revelation of the ten commandments? We learn that Moses wanted God to know that though he pleads, he is aware that even if God responds favorably, this response would be a gift rather than something he is entitled to.
Bringing Faiths Together
The Rabbis teach that senseless hatred, sinat chinam, destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Beyond the physical destruction, the Jewish community needed to pivot and create what would become modern Judaism, a Judaism spread around every corner of the world.
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