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May Our Hopes Bloom/Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah

 Dear Friends,


As we prepare to complete our Fall Holidays, I encourage you to search for Shemini Atzaeret and Simchat Torah on the My Jewish Learning.com site.

Shemini Atzeret gives us a time to remember our loved ones as we complete our intense schedule of the High Holidays and Sukkot.  This is a day when we gather together to reflect on the meaning of the Holiday and Festival season in what is referred to as the Day of Solemn Assembly.

Simchat Torah is the day on which we complete the reading of the Torah and begin the cycle of reading it again.  This was the day in 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel and the world changed forever.  It will be a complicated celebration this year because we all have had to reflect on what the attack and subsequent war mean for the future of Israel, Jewish values, and our hopes for peace.  As a rabbi I pray for peace and the safe return of the hostages.  As a professor, I teach about building bridges and hopes for dialogue and discussion.

By now, you are probably expecting lyrics to a song and I will not disappoint you.  .I found a classic folk station on XM/Sirius radio and recently heard the following song by Simon and Garfunkel. (See below)

I hope that we won't need to pretend and that perhaps the new year on the Jewish calendar will usher in an era where peace can bloom and it will not be an illusion.  We can't pretend anymore that our lives will never end. May the reality of the challenges we face will help us work for light.  I hope that light will not blind us but will give us the vision of what we can do to create better understanding in all aspects of our lives and will be a true reflection of our humanity. May the image we see in the mirror not be dark and small, but be bright and hopeful.

May what many believe to be fantasy and quixotic, become real and may our wandering lead us in a direction where our hopes for peace become a realistic destination.

Shalom, salaam, peace,

Rabbi Bruce Aft

Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall
Song by Simon & Garfunkel
OverviewLyricsListen

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