It was wonderful to see so many of you at our High Holidays services. It was also a pleasure to work with our Chazan, Phil Billet, who did a delightful job. Thank you to everyone behind and in front of the scenes who made this year a successful one.

The High Holidays season ends with Hoshana Raba and Simchat Torah — both involve circling the bima seven times. When we circle on Hoshana Raba, we also beat the remaining willows from the Arba’a Minim (four species). Many people were present for that, and most of us circled the social hall while beating the two dried willow branches. Like the walls of Jericho that were encircled by our ancient Israelite ancestors and finally fell, it is our hope that the obstacles we prayed to collapse through Rosh Hashana, will finally fall and go away.

On Simchat Torah, we again circled the social hall seven times, this time with all the Torah scrolls. We then finished the cycle of the Torah reading and re-rolled it, to begin another circle, another year. Circling and circling, God and all of us are like a husband and wife circling each other seven times under the chupah, as though putting seven rings around our fingers.

Just before the concluding holiday, the giant maple tree in front of my next-door neighbor’s house lost a limb that fell into my yard. Many of the old trees in Greenport are falling and are being cut down, leaving wide stumps that reveal a series of concentric rings — in a way renewing their vows with the earth until death do them part. The expert arborists can discern whether a tree experienced a particular cold or hot year, a wet or dry year, an early frost or a forest fire. The number of rings tells us how old the tree is — the light-colored rings represent growth in the spring and early summer, while the dark rings represent growth in the late summer and fall. How many circles does a tree complete without even moving?

Like the trees, our congregation added another year — 118 and growing, growing in concentric circles around the sanctuary, around God.

May we have a blessed year, and may we complete another circle.

Just before the concluding holiday, we learned about the passing of Bruce Bloom A”H, a big tree of a man who left a giant stump with 84 circles. Bruce was an artist at heart, who lived a creative life of writing and painting. His was a life well lived with Sara, who shared 58 of his 84 years, his rings, with him. May his memory be for a blessing for many years to come.

—Rabbi Gadi Capela