Holidays

Shavuot calls us to celebrate receiving the Torah – the inspiring, challenging, beautiful text of the Jewish people – and we do so by staying up all (or some of the) night, diving into mind- and heart-opening learning.

The start of the new year brings our annual chance to step out of our daily routines and try to recapture a sense of possibility. Happy birthday, world.

Intensive self-relection – heshbon hanefesh — is the name of the game on Yom Kippur and the High Holy Days overall. The centerpiece is teshuvah, the idea that change is possible within all living systems. That’s true for individuals, communities and entire societies. For 25 hours we abstain from food and drink, and we wear white and take an honest look inside to reflect on who we have become and who we could be.

Simhat Torah is the grand finale, the High of Highs, the culmination of this intense, challenging, inspiring season. Every prayer and prostration, moment of reflection and point of connection has led us here, to a night of few words and tremendous spirit.

As soon as Yom Kippur ends, we move from the realm of the soul and plant our feet firmly back on the ground.

For seven days we eat (and for some, sleep) in a sukkah, a makeshift hut that is just susceptible enough to the elements to remind us of our vulnerability and also the blessings of security.

The 8-day festival of lights that commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple is an affirmation that we can fix things that are broken, we can heal, and we can rebuild. The essence of the holiday though, is pirsumei nisa, publicizing the miraculous. We read that as a call to radiate light and hope – an act of holy defiance against darkness.

Wherever you are in the world, when you place your candles in your Hanukkiah, pause. Take a moment to reflect on the triumph of our tradition over the forces that would seek to extinguish it. That eternal light, which has guided our people for thousands of years, will never be extinguished.

We celebrate the New Year of the Trees by rejoicing in the beauty of nature and expressing gratitude to God for the environment. We plant trees and eat new fruit and recommit to caring for and protecting the earth so that we can continue to enjoy its gifts.

Purim reminds us of the capriciousness of life, the recognition of the reality that no matter how hard we work to control our lives, no matter how diligently we plan and prepare, life is unpredictable. There is more chaos than order in this world. Amazingly, Judaism tells us to respond to this terrifying reality simultaneously with revelry and with a renewed commitment to social change. We can’t control history, but we must control how we treat humanity.

Holocaust Remembrance Day – which we mark with reflection, the recounting of survivor testimonies, and, in Israel, a two-minute siren that stops commerce and conversation across the State.