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L’Shanah Tovah Temple Israel,

At this time every year, as we find ourselves on the precipice of a new year with all the anticipation and hoping and dreaming that comes with it, we are grateful to take a moment to reflect on our past year together, as a Temple Israel community.

The new year brings with it an opportunity for each of us – as individuals, as families, as members of this sacred community – to reflect on the past year. To ask ourselves how our thoughts and speech and actions have aligned with the goals that we set for ourselves at this time last year. To look inward and to contemplate how we have reached our goals or missed the mark. To consider the ways that we have let each other down and celebrate the ways that we have lifted each other up. As we enter into Elul, this holy in-between time of reflection and preparation, we know only one thing for certain: that we cannot change the past, but we can learn from it, grow from it, and allow these experiences to change us for the future.

This past year has not been an easy one. We have faced challenges and fractures on a global scale. With changing administrations both nationally and locally, we have grappled with increasingly divisive politics and policies, some of which ask us to raise our voices when they are at odds with our Jewish values. There has been violence and war and suffering and loss in the Middle East. Our hearts cannot yet heal in the aftermath of October 7th and the ongoing War in Gaza – wounds which we recognize have only deepened since our last High Holiday season.

Yet, we as your clergy, remain steadfast in our belief that we must come to each conversation with curiosity and openness rather than a sense of moral certainty. Each person in our community has wisdom to share, and Divinity within their words.

The Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe, are an invitation. An invitation to enter into a space of holiness, of reflection, of deep contemplation and innate curiosity of the world and the people around us. An invitation to live within the discomfort that uncertainty brings. That is what being Jewish means – we are B’nai Yisrael – the people who wrestle for the purpose of something higher and something holier.

As we enter this High Holy Day Season, we ask that you consider what it means to challenge yourself during these challenging times. This is the question that we will weave into these Days of Awe. And more than a question, it is an opportunity to consider your own path forward in this new year, both in your own life and in your engagement with Temple Israel. How will you challenge yourself in this coming year? How will you step outside of your comfort zone to try new things, to meet new people, to learn and grow in ways you may not have thought possible in previous years?

Yes, these are challenging times. Yet, this past year has also been filled with beauty, joy, and goodness. It is easy and sometimes tempting to dismiss that goodness as we take in the pain of the world. But it is the joy that anchors us and gives us hope for the year ahead. Together, we have shown up for each other in times of simcha and in times of sorrow. We have celebrated B’nai Mitzvah, weddings, and new babies. We have held each other through sorrow and mourning as we have lost loved ones. We have shown up at hospital beds and at each other’s homes with soup and well wishes as we engaged in the mitzvah of bikkur cholim, visiting the sick. We have been there for each other in the ways that matter – in the grand gestures and in the small moments. This beautiful, multi-generational, caring community is sacred, and we, your clergy, are grateful to have been trusted to be with you through each of these moments.

The High Holy Days are a reminder that there are always opportunities for growth – to know ourselves and each other anew. To that end, we want to take this opportunity to remind you that our doors are always open. We want to meet with you, to connect with you, to really know each and every one of you, whether in our offices, over coffee at the Brooks Café, or over a meal. So please, take us up on our invitation. We want to be in continued relationship with you.

This season is about reflection and recommitment and taking the opportunities for growth that we are afforded through the year. We look forward to welcoming each and every one of you to Temple Israel to pray, to sing, to connect to God and each other. As we hear the sound of the shofar, we pray that it will awaken our souls to something new, leading us to a year of health, happiness, wholeness, and peace.

May 5786 bring a shana tova for all.

Senior Rabbi Benjamin Sharff
Rabbi Deana Sussman Berezin
Cantor Joanna Alexander

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This letter was originally printed in the 2025 High Holiday Tidings.