Type: Article

How do we make it through the bitterness, the darkness, the uncertainty of this time? We call on what we know from that wild, rudderless, nomadic experience of being both lost and guided bamidbar.

On Sukkot, we read the words of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), a person bitterly reflecting on his older years. Does aging have to be negative, calling everything that brings pleasure pointless?

Before beginning a writing project or before repairing a scroll, I speak out my verbal intention. But then I often stay still for an extra moment.

I wish for you an Elul that is full of future-tense language.

An Elul 5783 teaching by Rabbi Janet Madden

Imagine that the whole world is God’s sukkah, and that we are all sheltered there.

We can become a beriah hadasha — a new version of ourselves in this New Year.