Glimmers of Light: Reflections on Hope for the Days of Awe 5785

We invited contributors, including JTS faculty, administration, alumni, and students, to reflect on how the liturgy of the Yamim Nora’im are helping them navigate present-day challenges. Explore poignant texts and inspiring interpretations below or download the entire reader to focus your thoughts and actions during this High Holiday season.

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Support for the High Holiday Reader is made possible by Shelly and Larry Gross, in loving memory of their parents Lillian and Louis Konheim (z”l) and Joseph Gross (z”l).

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Glimmers of Light: Reflections on Hope for the Days of Awe 5785
Online Edition

Introduction

Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Chancellor
and Irving Lehrman Research Professor of American Jewish History, JTS

This year we invited contributors, including JTS faculty, administration, alumni, and students, to reflect on how the liturgy and the Yamim Nora’im, are helping them navigate present-day challenges.

Let The New Year and Its Blessings Begin

Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, Pearl Resnick Dean of the Rabbinical School and Dean
of the Division of Religious Leadership, JTS

This piyyut, Ahot Ketanah (Little Sister), by the 13th-century Spanish rabbi Abraham Hazan Girondi, was written in a time when the community, vulnerable to religious persecution and disease, had known great suffering in the year that was ending.

Crying With God

Rabbi Gordon Tucker, Vice Chancellor of Religious Life and Engagement, JTS

In an essay some years ago, the Israeli teacher and poet Sara Friedland ben Arza asked us to focus on the prayer Hayom Harat Olam (“Today the World Stands as at Birth”) in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy.

Understanding Community through Rare Manuscripts from the JTS Library

Adapted from the forthcoming book, Discovering Great Treasure

The JTS Library is home to the largest collection of rare Judaica in the Western Hemisphere. Pieces from this collection offer insight into historical moments and communal response, showcasing moments of transition, communal engagement, and evolving traditions.

A Way Forward After Trauma

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, (RS ’99), Rabbi, Park Avenue Synagogue, Manhattan,
and Author of For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today

In a year marked by trauma, war, and enmity, we approach the holiday season in search of a language of reconciliation.

The Haftarot of the High Holy Days

Rabbi Joel Seltzer, Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement, JTS

The haftarot that accompany the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Torah readings provide spiritual direction for individuals as they engage in prayer.

Seeking Those Who Do Not Know Us

Marc Hersch, JTS Rabbinical Student

The line of the piyyut Veyetayu, known colloquially as Keter Melukha by its refrain, has puzzled me over time for the sheer breadth that it captures.

We Choose Life

Rabbi Leor Sinai, (RS ’09), Co-CEO, Alexander Muss High School, Israel

The Days of Awe, Yamim Nora’im, are a time of reflection and choices.

What Is Your Shelihut?

Rabbi Annie Lewis, Director of Recruitment and Admissions for Religious and Educational Leadership, JTS

After this past year full of grief and devastation unrolled, we are still trying to catch our breath.

Renewing Your Judaism

Daniel Caplan, Student Body President, List College, JTS

The High Holidays focus on teshuvah and starting anew; however, as I reflect on the explosive past year that the Jewish people have faced, neither of these traditional Rosh Hashanah values offer me much comfort or guidance on how to move forward.

The Importance of Showing Up

Hillary Gardenswartz, (KGS, DS ’07), Director of Student Experiences, Civic
Spirit, and Board Member, JTS

With so much happening in these unsettling and unstable times, it is reasonable to want to simply check out and stay in our personal bubble. . . When simply getting out of bed some days is a victory, why add the obligation to show up for others?

Feel Everything

Dr. Yael Landman, Assistant Professor of Bible, JTS

In incredibly difficult times, it is sometimes easier to focus on going through the motions of ritual, but Joel challenges us to feel everything, full-heartedly, however unbearable that may seem.

Sacred Words in Liturgy and Life

Dr. Shira Billet, Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics, and Director of the Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice, JTS

Human communication, the commitment to taking words seriously, is further imperiled in an age where our words are mediated through the technologies of social media and artificial intelligence, and the crippling social phenomena of political polarization and widespread mistrust.

A Call for Responsibility

Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Henry R. and Miriam Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections of the JTS Library

U-netanah Tokef is a prayer deeply rooted in the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah. It proved so popular that this Rosh Hashanah–themed prayer became standard on Yom Kippur, as well, despite its clear foregrounding of judgement (Rosh Hashanah) rather than forgiveness (Yom Kippur).

Glimmers of Light: Reflections on Hope for the Days of Awe 5785

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Glimmers of Light: Reflections on Hope for the Days of Awe 5785
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