Reflections on the High Holy Days

It’s hard to believe that two years have passed since October 7th, 2023 – two years of pain in Israel, in Gaza, and across the world. Our festivals of Tishri – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah – will forever carry the memory of that day and its consequences.

We celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 5786 in its shadow, and in the shadow of mounting, and increasingly unashamed, antisemitism in Europe and beyond. And yet, hope remains our driving force – and as Jews, we are not entitled to abandon it. Still, our individual fragility depends on the strength of our community, and that is exactly what we found in our High Holy Day celebrations this year.

Community members and visitors arriving in our pop-up synagogue may not have realized the immense amount of preparation and logistics that went into ushering our beloved IJC into a new Jewish year. Peter DB masterminded the entire process – from liaising with our hosts, to transporting machzorim and synagogue furniture back and forth, to coordinating with the caterer, and even organizing aliyot, ark openers, and Torah carriers. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of our volunteers – those who said ‘yes’ when asked, and those who stepped forward without even being asked.

Sadly, Peter was only partially able to enjoy the fruits of his labour, as Covid grounded him in the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, restricting his coordinating work to WhatsApp messages and phone calls. But in the end, it all came together beautifully – with special thanks to our administrator Hila and her partner Sarah Al-J. We celebrated with record attendance and many new faces.

Most of those attending Yom Kippur services will likewise not have known about the nightmare that confronted our High Holiday Chazan, Marty Eisenstein. Marty, who lives outside Athens, had booked flights to return to Brussels the day before Yom Kippur. A few days before departure, a general strike was announced – all flights out of Athens were cancelled. Panic! Calls went back and forth among community members, exploring every possible alternative. Finally, Marty managed to secure a flight from Thessaloniki and arrived in Brussels a day early.

Marty is an essential part of IJC’s High Holy Day experience – and has been for close to fifteen years. It simply would not have been the same without him, and we are deeply grateful for his determination to get here. This year, Marty treated us among other things to a moving rendition of the Sephardic piyyut El Nora Alila, which one seasoned congregant later described as ‘simply stunning’. I couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Marty!

One feature of Rosh Hashanah that has attracted growing interest is Tashlich (see photo) – the ceremony performed on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah that symbolizes casting off the sins of the past year. Armed with our new Tashlich cards (in Mishkan Tefilah style from the Central Conference of American Rabbis) and a bag of pebbles, more than twenty of us made our way down to a nearby lake – reassured by the, sadly, essential presence of security guards and police – to bid farewell to the failures of 5785 in a symbolic act of teshuvah (return) and commit ourselves to becoming better human beings in 5786.

One of the amazing Challot produced for Rosh Hashanah

And then, as we shifted abruptly from the self-reflection and remorse of Yom Kippur into the seven days of Sukkot, the Z’man Simchateinu – the Season of our Rejoicing – we shook our lulav and etrog in the sukkah. While its four elements symbolize Jewish diversity, they also remind us that the mitzvah can only be fulfilled when we hold them together and are united as a community.

As we hold our breath once again in the face of a fragile spark of hope for Israel and Gaza, let us commit ourselves not only to being better human beings and better Jews – but also to being a stronger, kinder, more connected Jewish community.

Rabbi Brian