ENTERING THE NEW YEAR By Rabbi Elaine Zecher
5777
Transformation does not have a beginning, a middle, or an end. We never reach the end of Teshuvah. It is always going on…Teshuvah seems to proceed in a circular motion. Every step away is also a step toward home. (Rabbi Alan Lew, This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared, page 154)
“Every step away is a step toward home.” The idea of home is also about Teshuvah.
Teshuvah comes from the Hebrew word, shuv. It appears more than 1,000 times in the Bible. It means to return, to come back and revisit a place, an idea, or a person. It also refers to behavior toward Over the summer, a number of God and sometimes even away Temple Israel members spent a from God. The plentiful usage of Our synagogue is our Shabbat on a bike trip, stopping the word and all its noun and verb along the way for Torah study and home where we engage forms tell us of its significance. then later for lunch. We call it ShaThe ancient rabbis understood Bike Shalom. On one Shabbat, a wise in Teshuvah, in the act of that each human being starts pure fellow rider told me that we should and that one’s behavior could place a sign on the Riverway similar move him or her further from this turning and returning in to the one at the end of Storrow state of being. They focused its Drive, but ours would say, “If you meaning on the human ability to the sacred work of this belonged here, you would be home return to rediscover our purest, by now!” best selves. They composed the holiday season. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Temple Israel is our home. It is where prayers that remind us we have no we belong, as members and as a single trajectory in our lives but place to live and experience Judaism a constant turning and returning. We revolve and evolve together. back toward ourselves. Any synagogue is described with the word for home, Teshuvah is also a place of warmth and welcome, even bayit. It is a house of prayer, a house of study, and a when it challenges us. It is where we find our best selves. Meeting House as well, as the words carved into the front façade on the Riverway remind us. The idea of home Our synagogue is our home where we engage in Teshuvah, signifies a place of warmth and welcome. This is our in the act of turning and returning in the sacred work of shared home. It is also the place where we can return to this holiday season. It is here where we can turn to one again and again through the cycle of the year and through another and turn out to face the world around us. the high, low and everything in between moments of our As we enter into this season of great opportunities for our lives. We continue in a cyclical, circular motion toward this congregation and ourselves, my clergy colleagues join me home. in wishing you and your families much goodness in the New Year 5777.
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INSIGHT Vol. 16, No. 2, Fall 2016/5776-77
