22-23 Elul, 5780

 On Fridays, we give you a double portion of our Elul Thoughts so that we can all take a rest from our electronics on Shabbat. Enjoy!

Rabbi Matt Cohen

Shifting Our Focus

How many of us have celebrated a major life milestone since the onset of Covid-19? It goes without saying that a socially distanced, masked-up, 15-minute drive-by birthday or anniversary celebration leaves us feeling less-than totally satisfied. Even with the thoughtful gesture of our family and friends, it is still a painful reminder of the complete lack of normalcy during this difficult time in our lives. It reminds us that we simply cannot celebrate the monumental moments the proper way they should be done. While major milestones only happen once-a-year or in some cases, even once-in-a-lifetime, perhaps our focus needs to be on the more frequent, seemingly smaller, moments which allow us to recognize and celebrate the true blessings in our lives. 

How many of us woke up this morning and took in that first conscious breath? Did you thank God for restoring your soul in mercy and trust? Were you grateful for the gift of life, full of opportunities to add more holiness to your life and the world around you? Every new day is a Divine gift that should not be taken for granted. Our tradition calls us to recognize and celebrate the moments that occur more frequently, the ones that are, indeed, not so small or insignificant. As we enter this sacred time of year, let us be grateful for the gift of another day. Let us be conscious of that first breath which will enable us to recognize the myriad blessings in our daily lives, especially those on our electronic devices to whom we will soon wish, “Shabbat Shalom and Gut Yuntiff!”  

Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld

Each week we transition from Shabbat, to the "ordinary" with Havdalah. As part of the ritual, we smell sweet spice to help us remember the shabbesdik feeling until the following Shabbat. We return to work, school, shopping; that is we return to the life we had so we need that extra reminder to carry us through the week.

At the end of Yom Kippur we also observe Havdalah but, without blessing spices. Is it that we do not want to remember our holy day season? Perhaps we know that the smell of the spices will not trigger enough memory to carry us through until next year's  Elul, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

For me, we omit the blessing over the spices because we hope that the transformation we have committed to with our Teshuvah is so profound, we do not need the aroma of the spices to solidify the change within us.