Rabbi's Message

If you ever watch professional athletes, you’ll see that most have a pre-game warmup routine. Golfers go the range and hit some balls, football players are on the ground doing stretching exercises, and baseball players are doing wind sprints in the outfield or “shagging” fly balls or fielding grounders. All of these practices are to begin engaging the muscles and reflexes they’re going to need when they get down to the serious business of playing their sport or game.

Judaism has its own warm up routine and, like the above, it’s important to us in getting us ready for the High Holidays.

As I’m writing this, the Hebrew month of Elul is about begin. Elul is the month that comes immediately before the Hebrew month of Tishre, the month that inaugurates our new year with Rosh Hashanah. During the month of Elul, Jews throughout the world begin a process of introspection before the High Holidays. We sort of get our “praying” muscles up and running so that we can enter the High Holidays with the intention of improving ourselves so that we can lead better lives and become better people.

If we’re able to attend a morning minyan during Elul, we will hear a few blasts of the Shofar to arouse us to make changes. Over the next few weeks, I encourage you to come to our Shul on a Friday night or Shabbat morning to “rev up” those squeaky prayer muscles.

During the week before Rosh Hashanah, you can come to our Saturday evening Selichot Service (Sept. 28, 7 PM), again, to stimulate the process of “cheshbon hanefesh” (thinking about our souls) by hearing some of the liturgy that we’ll hear later during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Some of our newer members will be helping with changing the Torah mantles to white for the coming Holidays. Join us afterwards for coffee and desserts for every palate.

During the coming days, we can begin thinking about the year that has passed. Did we accomplish the goals we set for ourselves? Were we charitable? Were we kind to both strangers and close relatives? Did we get any closer to God during this past year? Did we get any clearer about what our Judaism means to us? Do we need to make any changes in our lives that will improve the quality of our lives?

This year, in particular, has been extremely uncomfortable for many of us. October 7 and the reaction of the world to the events of that day, have truly shocked us out of our inertia as Jews. We are now uncomfortably aware of the breadth of anti-Semitism that still exists worldwide and most notably, in our own neighborhoods.

There is an undercurrent of disunity amongst us Jews that threatens every Shul, every JCC, every Federation, and every Jewish news outlet. Friendships are at risk. Family ties are weakening. Where do we turn for comfort?

My dear friends, if we don’t spend some time thinking about these things, our lives will continue moving swiftly by until at one point, our time will run out. All of our  memorabilia, all of our nice homes and cars and trips will be left behind, merely things of our past. If we could write our own eulogies, what is it that we want to be remembered for? Are the lives we’re living worthwhile? Are our lives what we want them to be?

As we approach this season of renewal, let us all take stock of where we are and where we are going.

As I’m thinking of the past few months in the life of our Shul, I’m cognizant of the fact that many people are working very hard to maintain our Synagogue’s presence here in eastern Boca Raton. From building maintenance, to providing food for activities, to accounting and generating letters to our congregants, to dealing with “new and improved” computer programs, and so much more, our volunteers are truly doing G-d’s work here on earth. As a result, our membership has more than doubled in just the past
two years!

When you see one of our Board members around the Shul or when you see someone working in the kitchen or someone greeting you at the door with a Shabbat Shalom, give them a pat on the back and a sincere “thank you”. Better yet, jump into the water with us! Join us! Catch Our Spirit!!

L’Shanah Tovah!
Rabbi Kieffer