Shanah Tovah U"mitukah - On Opening Volley of What this Season is About:

In 1985, Abigail Van Buren, author of Dear Abby, whose real name was Pauline Phillips - a Jewish woman from Sioux City, IA, gave a piece of advice in the form of a question.  The writer asked for Abby’s advice about giving up 7 years and returning to college in order to go on to medical school and become a physician, a life-long dream that had been sidetracked.  The writer concluded:  If I go back to college and get my degree, then go to medical school, do my internship and finally get into the actual practice of medicine, it will take me seven years!  But, Abby, in seven years, I will be 43 years old.  What do you think?  To this Abby responded:  And how old will you be in seven years if you don't do it?

When we stand here at the holidays, on the cusp of a New Year, we work hard to let go of past mistakes, we yearn for our better selves to be revealed.  It is a time during which, maybe, we make excuses for times we did not achieve our desired ends and yet we are given the space, at the High Holidays, to be human.  That is we are given this extended moment from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur to move past the excuses and beyond the explanations and let go…to let go of missteps, of missed opportunities and of miscommunications.  It is a time during which we use our past to illustrate the best picture of ourselves to move into this new year and beyond.  May each of us find in the space of this sanctuary, in the space given to us in the liturgy on the pages and in our connection to those surrounding us in community and in love all we need to let go in order to become ourselves.  Shanah Tovah!

Shanah Tovah,
Rabbi Evon