Rabbi Breit's Blog

The high holiday season can be overwhelming. There is a sense, maybe rightly so, that we should each be overcome with awe and fear. Some of us might secretly await a dramatic reset, heralded by a hurricane or claps of thunder. Or maybe we want a eureka moment where we suddenly discover or understand something in a way that makes the season’s significance finally palpable and obvious. We wait for a moment of teshuvah that should somehow strike us as both familiar and astonishing, like the sound of the shofar, unexpected but also we’ve prepared for it all along.

But how do we prepare for something like that? We're meant to take the whole month of Elul to prepare.

This Shabbat, in particular, the hurricane might indeed be coming. But there is another approach to the High Holy Days, one that isn’t about drama and surprise, but about humility, showing up, asking questions, and learning together. And so for the month of Elul, we should show up, ask questions, and learn together (in addition to navigating the hurricane safely).

Our parsha this week, Nitzavim-Vayeilech, opens with the words “atem nitzavim hayom” you are all standing here today. The parsha is insistent that it’s not just the fancy important people; it’s absolutely everyone. So that’s where we start — showing up together.

And then we hear this verse, often quoted in torah study, “Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’” That’s a provative rhetorical question, demanding we move to the next step, realizing that each and every one of us is educated enough, “good at it” enough, and smart enough to be part of our study of Torah. Come, ask a question, teach, and learn.

The greatest learning, the most impressive resilience, the dazzling feats of renewal and repentance are gleaned through practice, very rarely do they drop upon us all at once. They are found by continuously showing up, asking questions, and learning together.

Whether you come to all our study sessions every week, or you simply don’t think you’re the Judaics studying kind, I invite you this Shabbat to join with our Scholar in Residence, my friend Ben, one of the most humble and thoughtful teachers I have ever known, to do some learning together before the High Holidays. Ben is a JTS-trained scholar of interfaith dialogue and midrash. And we will learn from him and with him Friday night, Saturday morning, and at our nighttime Selichot services. The full schedule can be found here: https://www.bnaitorah.org/hh5785#SIR/Selichot

Shabbat shalom!