Rabbi’s message Rosh Hasana

Shavua tov my dear TAS community!! The concentric circles that started back on Tisha B’Av, are growing closer and closer every day as we approach Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur and also the festival of Sukkot in a couple of weeks. This Shabbat is the last of the 7 weeks between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Ha-Shanah. Over the last 7 weeks we have heard very special hatarot that are all taken from the prophet Isaiah. They are mostly very positive and take us from the sad time of the destructions of the Temples in Jerusalem and lead us together to the beginning of the New Year. Four weeks ago, as we blessed the new month of Elul, we also added Psalm 27 to our daily prayers and also blew the Shofar during the week but not on Shabbat. All of these rituals bring the concentric circles closer together as we all get closer to the High Holy Days. This past Saturday night we gathered together with three other communities in our San Gabriel and Pomona Valley to share the last of the rituals before Rosh Ha-Shanah. We davened together and sang together, we changed the dressings of the Torahs in the ark from the ‘regular’ colorful covers to all white covers for this time of year. And we joined together for some of the most important prayers that will be added on RH and YK in the S’lichot service. It was a very meaningful and uplifting service that helps us to focus on the importance of the coming High Holy Days and the significance of helping us to focus on our actions of the past year and how we can be better in the coming year. The concentric circles finally come together this Sunday night as we will gather together for the beginning of Rosh Ha-Shanah, and again on Monday and Tuesday