“Change seems especially palpable this time of year,” says Rabbi Sam Natov. “Pursuing change opens us up to vulnerability, but there can be no growth without change. As we enter into these High Holy Days, may we be strengthened and encouraged by each other.”

Here, “we stand by one another and we hold each other up,” says Rabbi Dalia Samansky as she’s officially welcomed to Stephen Wise. “Not only am I in awe as I stand before this congregation and God, but I stand firm and strong because I am standing on the shoulders of so many who came before me. This is an honor and a privilege.”

This week we read the famous line, “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof — justice, justice shall you pursue.” “We repeat our plea for justice as if crying out, ‘Pay attention! Wake up to injustice in the world,’” says Rabbi Samantha Natov. “But in 2022, what does justice look like? So much of the world seems to be falling apart…”

“We Jews gather,” says Rabbi Rena Rifkin. “Sure, we can feel God with us anywhere, but it is here — at synagogue — that we keep a reminder of the Holy Ark of the Covenant, God’s dwelling place among our wandering ancestors.”

When people come to Rabbi Dalia Samansky to express their disbelief in the Divine, she says: “Tell me about the God you don’t believe in.” More often than not, they’re imagining a God who “resembles Zeus or Santa Claus,” she explains. “But the Bible has many descriptions of God…”

“Can we still be open to loving and nurturing ourselves when we feel we are missing the mark?” asks Rabbi Samantha Natov. “It is a Jewish value to judge others favorably, to judge others with the assumption that they are people of merit. So why is it difficult at times to do the same for ourselves?”