In advance of the new year, people often ask rabbis, “Are you ready for the High Holidays?” I, for one, never know exactly how to answer. Is readiness measured in sermons written? In liturgy practiced and perfected? Or perhaps in High Holiday tickets ordered and received? What exactly does it mean to be “ready” for these days?

I am a huge fan of everything Disney – movies, Mickey, and now even Marvel. Our family has vacationed at Walt Disney World (WDW) and Disneyland more times than we can count. Our daughter was married at WDW, and we have a room in our home devoted to Disney “stuff.” Believe it or not, some recent Disney movie releases have a distinct connection to the Days of Awe.

This High Holidays season, as we think about racial justice and voting rights this late summer and fall, we’re also thinking about other key issues that are important to repairing our broken world and combating racial injustice.

It is for good reason that Jews close Yom Kippur — just before the blowing of the shofar — with the triumphant cry from the wonderful passage (First Kings, Chapter 19) in which Elijah vanquishes the prophets of Ba’al on Mt. Carmel:  “Adonai, hu haElohim!

I attended a small college in upstate New York, about five hours from my home, and I did not go home for Rosh HaShanah my freshman year. In terms of observing the holiday, I didn’t know what to do with myself.

Even though my college had a substantial Jewish

In June, I saw a post in a local Facebook group that intrigued me: "Stop! Take a break! Join us for Group Meditation in the City."

With this notice, a young couple, Hadas and Netanel Cohen, invited Nahariyanis  (residents of Nahariya, Israel, where I live) to

“On Rosh HaShanah, the year’s decree is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed, who will live and who will die…”

We hear these words each year in our High Holidays prayer book, and they fill our hearts with dread: Have I done what was right, or at least the

Every year on the High Holidays, police officers sit outside our synagogue to protect our community and building from harm.

I understand why the police are there. I know the risk that comes with openly celebrating Judaism.

A new year is a time to reflect, a time to repair, and a time to renew.

Judaism teaches us, as the Psalmist says, to “number our days,” to make each day count.