The Jewish calendar and life cycle rituals offer us many opportunities for new beginnings: a new start after each Shabbat, new year celebrations for trees and harvests and spiritual resets, a time to reread the Torah each year, and moments to embrace the gifts of new life, new marriages, and new personal chapters. Our tradition continually makes space for us to consider that life is not stagnant, but rather, filled with endless possibilities for growth and transformation. With each new beginning comes the blessing of hope, the freedom to leave behind what no longer serves us, and the courage to restart and step into the unknown, into the beauty of starting anew.
Yesterday, on the first day of the new week, Rabbi Yoshi and I had the opportunity–together with a great community of family and friends–to bless a new child of our Wise congregation, a new daughter named in the House of Israel. This child is a fourth generation Wise member and the first great-granddaughter of her family. The arrival of this precious new baby brings such profound hope and joy to our whole community and to the Jewish People, both as she begins her own personal journey and also as she continues our birthright, our faith, our convenant with God. Celebrating her new life with the words, wisdom, and music of our tradition brought us all such a shared sense of delight and reinforced the sacred responsibility we all share in guiding the next generation in our values and traditions.
As we approach the season of Hanukkah–one that uniquely spreads into the beginning of the calendar year of 2025–may we embrace the sweet firsts of the season: the first candles lit, the first latkes fried, the first gifts shared, the first resolutions made, the first hopes we have for the year ahead. May we embrace every opportunity to recite this blessing over firsts, thanking God for allowing bringing us to each milestone, each new holy moment:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם,
שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה
Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam,
shehecheyanu, v’kiy’manu, v’higiyanu laz’man hazeh.
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all,
who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season.
–Cantor Emma Lutz