I hope that you and your families are enjoying the summer and looking forward to several more weeks of long sunlit days. Many of our families are still busy with day camp for their youngest children while others have just completed visiting days at sleep-away camps and are now getting ready for “re-entry”. Some families have their graduates getting ready for college as first year students or returning to a dorm or off campus housing. And others have been able to take vacations that were put off the last few years and enjoy times with good friends and family. At TST we are also busy and getting ready for the High Holy Days and the new year, 5784. Yes, a return to our home for the holidays, Caramoor, but this year with an exciting twist. After day 1 of Rosh Hashanah at Caramoor, day 2 of Rosh Hashanah, Sunday September 16, will be held in our Sanctuary and on our grounds. Is there a better way to celebrate the new year than being together with services and activities for our children and family on our beautiful campus at Baldwin Road? I don’t believe so. As Rabbi Harold Kushner stated in his book, To Life, regarding the High Holidays: I have never understood why we respond to the High Holy Days the way we do…. We find comfort in community, in the presence of so many others around us sharing the same hopes and fears. And we find comfort in the liturgy’s helping us articulate our hopes and fears in words more eloquent than we could have come up with ourselves. I wish all of you a great, healthy and happy rest of summer and all the best for a wonderful transition to the fall season. See you all at Caramoor and at Baldwin Road on day 2 of Rosh Hashanah. – Bill Glenn, August, 2023 |