Rosh HaShanah

While officially on school break over the last two months, many of the faculty found themselves preparing for an eventual return to campus. Hours were filled reading, researching, collaborating, and writing. Curricula were revisited, conversations were had, and Zoom meetings malfunctioned! Yet, before we blinked, we all resumed our commutes over bridges, coordinated carpools, and eagerly headed back to the truly sacred duties of teaching your precious children, our students. During Faculty Institute, the long days were replete with meetings, lectures, presentations, and review sessions. In addition to welcoming new faculty members and assisting in their orientation, all staff members were introduced to the latest new technologies and software design systems, both guaranteed (!) to make our educational endeavor modern, contemporary, and streamlined. 

At the same time, while staff were diligently training, the halls were eerily silent. There was no commotion in the classrooms. There were no audible sounds of students rushing from place to place. There was no consistent chatter of Jewish teenagers kibbitzing, texting, posting, and socializing with each other. I imagined to myself, what will it be like when all of our pupils return cacophonously to their “old stomping grounds” for a vital new beginning?

Friends, our students have indeed come back to the school, apparently refreshed, rejuvenated, and reenergized! Baruch Hashem, the halls once again reverberate with laughter, learning, and palpable joy. While you and I are not High School freshmen, sophomores, juniors, or seniors, it is arguable that as we approach the High Holy Days, we can nonetheless learn something, hypothetically life altering, from the following Talmudic passage.

Rabbi Chanina said: “Much have I learned from my rabbis, even more have I learned from my colleagues, but from my students I have learned more than from anyone else.” (Taanit 7a). With this teaching in mind, here is my advice to us, as students of Hashem, as we enter the proverbial Halls of Life, to pray for a sweet New Year.

As our students entered school for the first day with a sense of awe, so too, may we enter our prayer spaces this year with a sense of יראה (yirah), reverence for God, and the holiday season.

As our students entered the doors of education relying on past knowledge and fundamentals, so too, may we employ our knowledge of Torah and Judaism,  using it as the bedrock for even greater תלמוד תורה (talmud torah) that is, study, self-growth, personal reflection, and the performance of deeds of lovingkindness.

As our students entered the halls deeply motivated to reconnect with קהילה (kehilah) or community, so too, may we come to shul this Yom Tov eager to reestablish our ties with neighbors, clergy, and fellow congregants. 

As our students embraced an attitude of gratitude with the belief that the year will be filled with growth and blessing, so too may we enter the Jewish year with a sense of הודאה (hoda’ah), Divine thanks, for all the blessings we have received. 

As our students entered the semester primed to fulfill their social action obligations and service hours, so too, may we be primed to do our part as members of our respective communities, to continue the work of Tikkun Olam, making the world a better place.

I pray that thorough collective commitment, dedication, and focus, our New Year of 5784 will indeed be filled with Torah study, community building, humility, thanks, and appropriate reflections of reverence and awe. May we all merit to achieve an A+ in the year ahead. 

Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah, 

Rabbi Eric L. Wasser, EdD., Hon.M.
HS Talmud Teacher, HS Rosh Tefilah