This introspection and taking-stock is an essential part of the Jewish experience, and it is among the highest of Jewish values.  Maimonides taught (Hilchot Teshuvah, chapter 5) that each one of us has the ability to discern between right and wrong, between deeds of goodness and of wickedness, and we are each given complete free will to determine who we will be.  Each year, we can choose to re-create ourselves, re-invent our character and individuality.  No less of a rabbinic authority than Maimonides taught that nothing is pre-ordained.  Putting his own spin on the Talmudic saying that “everything is in the hands of Heaven, except for the fear of Heaven,” Maimonides wrote that “each person has the ability to be as righteous as Moses, or as wicked as Jeroboam” (a king who publicly defied God’s prophets).  Our ability to re-envision ourselves is considered by Maimonides a “pillar” of Jewish life.

As a community, we must take on these questions now, too.  We have the ability to determine what Temple Sinai will be.  I am proud of our accomplishments together this past year as a community.  We can celebrate our successes and innovations.  We have shared Shabbat dinners, held our first ever Congregational Retreat which drew 60 people, expanded our Adult Learning courses, embarked upon a meaningful Worship Initiative, and formed a new Israel Education and Action Committee.  We have done our work on Mitzvah Day, rejoiced at the Passover Music Festival, created a fabulous and flashy Purim Shpiel.  Our Religious School continues to shine, under the leadership of Heidi Smith Hyde.  And our Caring Committee, which includes many members of our congregation, finds a way to bring comfort, consolation and meals to people in need, both near and far.  As I look backwards, I think:  Wow.  What a wonderful year!   How many successes we have shared this year!

But the month of Elul asks us to begin to address the work that still remains to be done.  And the Elul and High Holy liturgy frames these questions for us in the plural, urging us to confront them as a community.  So now:  How can we continue to grow and do better as a community? 

In Pirke Avot (2nd century), Ben Azzai taught:  “Do not despise any person, and do not consider anything impossible; for there is no one who does not have his hour, and there is nothing that does not have its place.”  I believe that (almost) nothing is impossible when we have the will.  And, for many of the challenges that lay ahead of us, this is the hour to meet them.  Chief among them are increasing our community adult learning, and considering the new shape of worship and music in our Sanctuary for the years ahead. 

Other questions require our attention.  We ask how we can better welcome strangers and newcomers in our midst.  We ask how we can better create a warm atmosphere for non-Jews, gays and lesbians, multi-racial families.  We ask how we can make Temple Sinai a more welcoming place for older singles, for the handicapped, for the elderly.  We ask how we can engage in Jewish learning on a more regular basis.  We ask how we can bring justice into the world through acts of Tikkun Olam and social action.  We ask how we can make our prayer more heartfelt and more frequent.  All these are essential Jewish questions for us as individuals and as a community during Elul, and they intensify as we near the High Holy Days. 

Introspection and reflection are hard tasks to take up, and our tradition acknowledges this.  It says (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 8:16), “Repentance appears to be far from you, but it can be near to you” – which I interpret as a recognition of how hard it is to start this process, but how easy it can be once we start.  But the continuation of the midrash teaches, that repentance also “appears to be near you, but it can be far away from you”; if we don’t take this task seriously, or do not truly engage our souls in the introspection that teshuvah demands, we will never reach it.  Behind us are great victories and successes, but ahead of us are important challenges, personal and communal, and they require that we invest ourselves wholly to meet them.

 
I look forward to beginning another rewarding year with you.  May we make the most of it together.