Search results for Rabbi Aviva Richman

The cycle of teshuvah (repentance) that leads us up to the High Holidays promises a clean slate, a way to cleanse our previous sins and begin the year renewed. But we also know that the truth is more complicated than that: a new beginning is always, in some ways, a continuation of what came before. Our slates are never fully clean. Relationships remain broken, our communities remain divided, and we can’t know for certain whether God accepts our teshuvah or not.

And yet, there’s still hope in the transformative power of true teshuvah. These essays from Hadar’s distinguished faculty discuss meanings of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the central theme of teshuvah, offering insights and calls to action, both internal and external. We hope you use this resource to enrich your experience of this central time of year, that you use these ideas when you are thinking of your own teshuvah and your place in fixing what is sadly broken in the world.

We are so often carriers of the past—the paths traveled, our personal narratives, the realm of memory. And yet our minds simultaneously dwell upon the future, the journey that lies ahead, the realm of hope and promise. In this Reader, we offer you opportunities to explore both past and future, reflecting on the memories and experiences we carry with us, and daring to dream of the yet unfulfilled promise of what the future may hold.

During the Ten Days of Repentance, we insert a prayer into the Amidah, זכרנו לחיים (zokhreinu le-hayyim, remember us for life). In these two words, we encapsulate the great task of these High Holidays. We awaken זכירה (zekhirah, memory), inviting reflection upon what has transpired to bring us to this very moment, and we direct it forward, לחיים (le-hayyim, to life), peering down the road, imagining what good we can accomplish, and what blessings we can aspire to, in the year to come.

By learning together during these Days of Awe, we hope to share in an upward trajectory, bringing our great past into an even greater future, and looking forward to a year of health, peace, and joy.

The High Holidays are often a time out of time, where we re-examine our relationship to God, ourselves, and our communities; we reflect on ways to make ourselves and these lines of connection stronger and more vibrant. Certainly, the Covid-19 reality of social distancing challenges the traditional setting for this self-reflection: An individual, bolstered by community, standing before God. But these times also create opportunities for re-visioning—seeing things anew and growing in the process.

In these pages, the Hadar faculty has tackled many theological, spiritual, and emotional questions that may arise this holiday season. In what ways must the individual rise to the occasion in the absence of community? What do we expect from God, demand from God, in our prayers this year? What creative avenues are available for conceptualizing community, when we don’t gather en masse? How do we foster celebration and joy in a time of loneliness and stress?