High Holidays

High Holiday Message from Rabbi Gilah Langner

Welcome! As I write this in June, it’s hard to wrap my head around what we have been living through this past year.  We could have used a year of turning back from divisiveness and ways of war.  We could have used a year of healing and rebuilding in Israel, a year of calm and healing here in America.  Instead, we have been thrust even further into a maelstrom of chaos, civil strife, and a frightening shift away from our cherished Jewish and American values.

But I find myself singing, off and on, the beautiful song by Alexandra Blakely that Hazzan Rebekka Goldsmith introduced us to at a Shabbaton this spring.  The words are:

You do not carry this all alone

No you do not carry this all alone.
This is way too big for you to carry this on your own
So you do not, carry this all alone.

You can hear it sung by Alexandra Blakely here.

I need hardly tell you — none of us can carry this load ourselves.  Nor should we feel we have to.  We need one another — to marshal our courage, to fight what can be fought, to march and demonstrate and make our voices heard, to take care of one another, to lean on our tradition and on God for support and strength.

There’s a beautiful line from Pirkei Avot / The Ethics of the Fathers that we will be coupling with Alexandra Blakely’s song.  You’ve heard the words before, but they have a new poignancy now:

You’re not required to complete the task, but you aren’t free to sit it out.  
Lo alecha ham’lacha ligmor, V’lo ata ben chorim l’hibateil mimena.

We’ll be singing our way through these lines, reinforcing the message that we are in this together.  Let the High Holidays be a time to join with others and fortify your soul.  Kol Ami welcomes you into our community.

~ Rabbi Gilah Langner