It is hard to believe that when this article reaches you, I will be completing my first year at Bet Shira, and boy has it gone by extremely fast. My family and I are so grateful to God and to our wonderful congregation for the blessings we have been given in being part of such a wonderful congregation. Our first year has been filled with memories that will last a lifetime and it is my hope and prayer that my tenure here at Bet Shira will be just as remarkable as our first year has been together.
As we begin to end our year here in terms of programming, it means that summertime is just around the corner. It is time to go camping, time for family vacations and it is extremely important as Jews to refresh ourselves as we begin to ready ourselves to bring in 5767 this coming September. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the great Twentieth Century Rabbis in America said: "Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time."
We as Jews and as human beings take time very seriously. At times, we feel there is not enough time in the day for our jobs, our families, our friends and ourselves. The summer needs to provide an opportunity for us to make time for everyone, especially ourselves. In order to approach the High Holidays feeling we are ready to start over, we must feel that we have taken the time to prepare ourselves aiming towards a goal of feeling that our souls have been replenished and our bodies have been re-energized for the coming year.
Israel Davidson, an early 20th Century U.S. poet and scholar had an inscription on the inside of his watch that read: "It is later than you think." Once in addressing the students of the Jewish Theological Seminary at a commencement he said: "We can accumulate time, we cannot regain time lost, we cannot borrow time, we can never tell how much time we have left in the bank of life. Time is life."
As the summer has arrived, we must take advantage in providing ourselves the gift of personal time. We must allow ourselves the ability to engage in quality experiences with those who we love and we must certainly set aside some time for ourselves so that we may come before God refreshed and ready for a new year. May all of us enjoy our summer, and may God support us as we engage in a path, which will bring us to the fall season feeling refreshed, recharged, re-energized and ready for a prosperous and blessed new year.
Kol Tuv, Have a wonderful summer,
Rabbi Micah Caplan
