Elul is here

Recently, we did a regular software update on our phones.  Like many of you, our lives are on them--photos, videos, music, contacts.  Like many of you, we never properly set up the icloud or google photos or had even backed them up to our computer.  This might not seem important, except that Rebecca had taken hundreds of photos of our new baby and they were ONLY located on the phone. My phone updated without a hitch, but you can guess what happened next to hers--the update failed--freezing her phone with seemingly no way to get the photos off.  I downloaded new software, tried all sorts of different things and failed at making appointments at apple stores--or reading the times correctly for opening.  Drove to Nanuet and arrived an hour before the store opened, then went on to Long Island and got to the mall 3 minutes after store opened and with 100 people already there!  Thankfully this story ends well, miraculously we were able to salvage the photos to a hard drive, erase her phone and update it once again.  The “genius” said we were really lucky, as usually when the phone gets there, it has to be wiped, nothing can be restored.  Our emotions had been through a whirlwind (and now we are printing a bunch of baby photos!)

The emotions involved--the potential loss and the hope crashing down and being restored--seem in some ways to be the emotions of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  The month of Elul we prepare ourselves, with daily psalms and even shofar blasts.  We wake up our souls and remember that we are not alone in the universe.  We are part of a larger entity--our synagogue, our Jewish community--connected to the Holy One.

While one might argue there is always time to change our ways, Elul, the Ten Days of Repentance really push us.  The shofar blasts us from our daily routine.  The psalms make us question the status of our faith, the ways we act.  Creating a sacred space to review and renew our relationships opens a window (or a door) to repair those that are fractured--even if they seem beyond repair.  Maybe you haven’t talked a sibling, a parent, a friend, a child because of something that has been forgotten?  Maybe this system update can allow you a blank slate to restore and refresh?  Maybe there are good reasons for that break THEN, but times have changed so that NOW, the photos and good memories can be restored, and the bad ones left behind? For some, it could be that simple and for others, it is not.  Some hurts cannot be forgiven--but for the ones that CAN, what are you waiting for?

At the synagogue level, this is a wonderful time to be a member of CAI.  Look at the calendar for all the new classes on “How to Jew”.  We will be learning and growing our liturgical, philosophical, historical, and relationship skills.  Don’t know “How to Jew”--you will soon!  Join us and be inspired by our sacred covenant and holy community!  All are welcome.

So back up your phones and your photos, back up your souls, restore, repent, and grow for 5777.  Join us for classes, for services, for the next wonderful year in your lives!  As always, I’m glad to meet for coffee, for lunch, for conversation sacred or sometimes profane (politics these days!), for the sacred and everyday moments in your lives.  I’m grateful for the five years I have spent getting to know you and look forward to our next adventures together.