70 Attend Chabad’s First Rosh Hashana
Shmoozing with Dennis Prager minutes before our appearance on the annual Chabad Telethon he turned to us and consolingly said, “Don’t be too disappointed if you don’t get a Minyan for the High Holidays, after all, you just moved to California a few weeks ago”.
Truthfully, even in our most optimistic moments we weren’t expecting this phenomenal response from the community - a full house on the eve of our first Rosh Hashana and throughout the entire holiday, both during the services and the festive holiday buffets.
How heartwarming it was to walk into our first Rosh Hashana and see a room full of Jews. Many of the people present would, surely, place themselves in ‘different’ categories: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, secular, unaffiliated, etc. Yet, there was one common denominator, one driving force that brought us all together that evening – our Jewish souls and heritage.
Let us utilize these precious days, between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, to properly nourish that gem we all possess inside us – our soul. Let us commit to one more act of goodness, one more act of kindness, one more mitzvah. In this way we can infinitely better ourselves, our family, our community, and in turn the entire world.
Shabbat Shalom & Shana Tova,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick