Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Yael Splansky

Dear Holy Blossom Temple Community,

The year 5781 is coming to conclusion. Baruch HaShem!

Soon we can close the doors to a year of challenge and fear, uncertainty and loss.

Soon we can turn the page on a year of discovery and lessons learned the hard way. We open the Book of Life to a new page, a new chapter, which we will fill with deeds of courage and deeds of love.

As we prepare ourselves and our homes to greet the new year, take a moment to acknowledge all we have endured and to acknowledge all we have received.

Before you rise to light your Rosh HaShannah candles, you may wish to offer your own words of reflection to name the moment when one year gives way to the next.  You may wish to offer up this prayer-poem, from “Wildly Unimaginable Blessings” by Alden Solovy.

Let us dream
Wildly unimaginable blessings …
Blessings so unexpected,
Blessings so beyond our hopes for this world,
Blessings so unbelievable in this era,
That their very existence
Uplifts our vision of creation,
Our relationships with one other,
And our yearning for life itself.

Let us dream
Wildly unimaginable blessings …
For a complete healing of mind, body, and spirit,
For a complete healing for all,
For the end of suffering and strife,
For the end of plague and disease,
When kindness flows from a river of love,
When goodness flows from a river of grace,
When God’s light,
Is seen by everyone.

Let us pray —
With all our hearts —
For wildly unimaginable blessings,
So that God will hear the call of the shofar, open the Gates of the Garden,
and see that we haven’t waited,
That we’ve already begun to repair the world.

Let this be our testimony of faith in life,
Of faith in one another,
Of faith in the Holy One,
Blessed be God’s Name.

L’Shanah Tovah.

May it be a year of good health and restoration for us all.

Rabbi Yael Splansky