L'shana tova tikateivu - may you be written for a good year!

It's the morning of Erev Rosh Hashanah, and I'm trying to dash off a few brief (but not so awkward) lines (Mom, that's for you :) ) I've had so many experiences this week that have impacted me immensely, so I'd like to share them with you.

I'm really excited for Rosh Hashanah to begin tonight - probably more so than I've ever been. It's amazing to be preparing for the holidays here in Jerusalem, because the energy is just collective - everyone's been buzzing about shul and meals and making those phone calls to apologize and just starting anew, and everyone you meet on the street says shana tova! It's simply incredible. Even our cab driver last night said "Shana tova - a year of good studies and good boyfriends to you all!" On Tuesday night, there was this pre-RH street fair basically 2 blocks away from my apartment, with live bands, food vendors, artisan tables, and street performers, and the mood was SO joyful. Just the fact that that even existed was amazing - the wonders of a Jewish state :).

In my social justice class at Pardes, we had a speaker come on Sunday that was INCREDIBLY powerful and made us all think and reevaluate our priorities. His name was Rabbi Levi Lauer, and he spoke in very extreme terms about our imperative for pursuing justice in the world. He talked about how it was "theologically obscene" to think that G-d cares more about whether we flip lights on and off on Shabbat than if we work to make sure that human beings aren't sleeping on the street, and he also told us how when he gets up to daven (pray) in the mornings and gets to the Amidah (the pinnacle of the prayer service where you outline your requests for G-d), he won't pray unless he feels that he's done anything in the last 24 hours to merit asking G-d for ANYTHING. These kinds of social justice questions are the ones that keep me up at night, and I often wonder - is studying here really the best use of my time and resources? Couldn't I be out helping people and have a much greater impact on the world? I had been thinking about this stuff a lot before Rabbi Lauer came to speak, so his words really struck deep into my heart, and I was crying throughout his lecture.

My friends in the class and I have been doing a lot of processing since that talk, trying to understand his ideas and make them work for us, and I realized that while he was speaking in very black and white terms, he really was advocating for a balanced life - one where social justice priorities receive just as much weight as specifically Jewish priorities, and where we carefully craft our lives so that our Judaism is expressed in every action that we do. One thing that does keep me going though is the notion that G-d had to recede from creation in order to make room for human initiative, and it's our job to complete the work that G-d began. There's room to fail, but there's also great possibility that we'll succeed, and there's so many chances each day for us to begin that kind of creativity.

And to begin - I'm heading out in a few minutes to volunteer at a soup kitchen near the shuk (the open air market). It'll be packed today with families preparing for Rosh Hashanah, so they'll need all the help they can get.

L'shana tova tikateivu to all - may you be written in the book of life for a good year, a year of new adventures, new friends, new foods, and new beginnings.