This week’s Torah portion is the final one we read before the High Holy Days and the opening line seems completely fitting, “You stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God — your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water-drawer —to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, … I make this covenant, with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day before the Lord our God and with those who are not with us here this day.” Moses is reminding the Israelites of their moment of direct contact with God at Sinai. What better way to frame Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which are the most intimate of all the Jewish holy days. According to our tradition, they are the times when each of us, as individuals, renews our connection to the Holy and the Sacred. As we enter the synagogue next week, this parsha reminds that each of us has our moment of standing at Sinai, our moment of sacred connection when we renew our bonds with the Spirit that animates the Universe. And the other purpose of the High Holy Days, teshuvah, or the return to the right path, is perfectly described just a few verses later, “See, I set before you this day life and prosperity, death and adversity.” (Deuteronomy 29:15). Each of us has the opportunity to make a choice and to renew our connection of the best in us and to work to bring out the best in others and the world around us. Shannah Tovah u’metukah – May you have a good and sweet New Year.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 8:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.