by Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
Dear friends,
We gather once again as a community to welcome the New Year and to participate in the most important work of our lives: reflecting on how we can be our best selves so that we can do our part to make our world a better place.
It’s extraordinary in some ways that we gather as a community in such large numbers to do work that is so individual and private. The lesson is beautiful: we need each other, we need our community, so that we can grow as individuals. Together we find strength and inspiration. Together we find a deeper sense of meaning and purpose. Together we are reminded of our shared history and our common destiny.
We are grateful that you have chosen to be part of the Stephen Wise Temple community on these sacred days. It is our deepest hope that you will join us again and again throughout the year. We need your help in our Center for Tikkun Olam so that we can provide housing to homeless veterans, the gift of literacy to underserved students, and support for members of our own community who are in mourning or struggling with illness. We need you in our Center for Jewish Life to add your voice to a conversation about the future of Jewish life in America or the meaning of the texts of our ancient tradition in a 21st Century setting. We need your voice and your spirit at Shabbat services and at Family Camp. We need your help in transmitting our heritage to the next generation of students at Wise School and in our Center for Youth Engagement. Friends—your presence enriches our communal life immeasurably.
And—I believe this with every fiber of my being—you need this place, too. I know I do. Being part of a Jewish community enriches my life immeasurably too. I need my community for support, for strength, and for inspiration. My Jewish community helps to magnify my simchas and helps me to navigate life’s challenges. Best of all, my community helps me to be a better person so that, together, we can make a better world.
Thank you for joining us on these most special days. As we welcome 5778, I hope you’ll be with us—and that we’ll be there for you—many, many times in the year to come so it will be for us, for all Israel, and for all the world a year of health, peace, justice, goodness, and blessing.
L’shanah tovah u’metuka!