Happy New Year!
"Did anything exciting happen today?" I asked my mother while on the phone with her yesterday. My mother is the quintessential homemaker, spending her days caring for others, fielding calls from her children and making the world's best butternut squash soup. Excitement and drama are not part of her average day. She's hardly the thrill-seeker type. So, I asked her that question sort of jokingly.
She chuckled and passed along the question to my father. "Sruly wants to know if anything exciting happened to us today." I heard my father laugh and respond, "We made it through the day. At our age, that's exciting!"
Each year, on Rosh Hashanah eve, we say the Shehecheyanu prayer, thanking G-d for allowing us to survive the previous year and have the ability to celebrate another new year. This year, the Shehecheyanu prayer has special meaning to every single person who is fortunate enough to have made it through the year, regardless of age. It has truly been a year full of uncertainties and challenges for all. It's hard to believe that last year on Rosh Hashanah, Covid-19 was decreed upon high.
The Midrash teaches us that when G-d split the sea for us, it did not split all at once, but rather like opening a zipper. As our ancestors ventured deeper into the sea, it continued to split for us as we walked through, bit by bit. This way, G-d taught us a very important message: But for the grace of G-d, we can never take the status quo for granted. Dry land, a raging sea, our health, our very lives, it's all a gift to be appreciated and savored.
This weekend, as G-d hits the "reset" button for all of mankind, health, wealth, elections, and world peace are all up in the air. Nothing is guaranteed, for better or for worse. Let's take joy in what we have, one day at a time, and hope and pray of a year full of joy, serenity and full of so many exciting things!
Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova,
Rabbi Koval
