Dear Members and Friends,

It was wonderful to see so many of you on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; it always feels like an extended family reunion. After several months of preparation and excitement, then a few days of long and intense prayers, and one long fast day, comes the moment of the last blast of the shofar, telling us that we worked hard, now we can sit and eat! As we read in the Book of Ecclesiastes, “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.” (9:7) There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy pleasure for his labor.” (2:24) And boy, we do; at Tifereth Israel we break the fast with a feast.

The Book of Ecclesiastes is the book customary to read during Sukkot because its message fits perfectly at the end of the High Holidays season. In the book that is attributed to King Solomon (Kohelet is its Hebrew name), the protagonist tells us that he had everything under the sun in wealth and wisdom, and that he had tried pretty much everything. His main message to us is that life is fleeting (he’vel means breath, often mistranslated as futile or vanity); it is like the wind, which we can never catch. We are not the owners of this world but the guests who come to visit for a few days — our 15 minutes of breath. To use it wisely is to not overdo anything or to try to understand everything. The mystics see in this message a clue that this world is a mere vestibule to Olam Habah — the next, eventual world.

After accepting the kingship of God on Rosh Hashanah and as our gracious host, on Yom Kippur we invite God to be a guest in our lives, in our temple. Then by sitting in the Sukkah — a temporary hut — at the culmination of the High Holidays season, we validate our acknowledgement that life is temporary. Like the Sukkah, we are also temporary. Since we don’t know when the end will come, we should enjoy the process. “I saw that there is nothing better for man than to enjoy his endeavors, since that is his portion. For who can enable him to see what will happen afterward?” (3:22) This idea is also backed by the Mishnah in Avot (Ethics of the Fathers 4:2) “A reward of a Mitzvah is Mitzvah,” which means that the reward of the Mitzvah is the process of fulfilling the Mitzvah itself, leaving future outcomes to God.

All the characters we read about over the High Holidays, including Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Moses, and Aaron, have one thing in common: all of them feel as though they are God’s servants. But Aaron embodies this message in full in his Avodah — his service — as the High Priest we read about on Yom Kippur. His service has a definite order and a meticulous process, yet the outcome is not in his control, and is decided by casting lots: “And he shall take the two goats, and set them before the Lord at the opening of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel.” (Lev. 16:7-8)

In our personal and public lives, we are often tempted to rationalize that the end justifies the means, that somehow we can ignore the way as long as we arrive at our destination. But can a product of a non-kosher process still be kosher? Let us remember that being a servant in the temple means keeping the process kosher, and letting God decide the ultimate outcome. It is a humbling and a freeing sentiment at the same time. “…there is nothing better for man than to enjoy his endeavors… For who can enable him to see what will happen afterward?”

May God bless this year in all its outcomes, and may 5777 be a jubilee year of peace and healing for us and for the rest of the world.

Shanah Tova,

—Rabbi Gadi Capela