Okay, everyone. DEEP BREATHS!!!!!!!!! Because we’re doing this. Together-apart, we’re going to get through this next socially-distanced holiday.
And I, for one, am actually excited.
Like, weirdly excited.
Because I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking it all over, and here’s the very simple conclusion I’ve come to: It’s going to be okay.
It goes without saying at this point that Rosh Hashanah 5781 is not going to feel or look or sound or smell like Rosh Hashanah 5780. Services will be conducted virtually, dinners will be less crowded, and traveling home to be with family we’re used to seeing a this time of year might not be possible.
But that doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad, or that it has to be wildly disappointing, or that we all have to grumble and throw our hands up. I’m not by any means asking you to pretend that the situation is ideal or even “good.” But it’s one year—one year, Gd willing, out of our entire lives. And like with Pesach, I think we might be able to use this anomaly year as an excuse to do more, not less: to be more creative, to try more new recipes, to host for the first time ever, to push boundaries and innovate.
That’s what I’ll be doing here. I’d really love for you to join me.
Over the next 30-ish days, I’ll be sharing a TON of elegant, beautiful, real, simple, and not-so-simple ideas to help you make the most of the season ahead of us. I’ve partnered with some of my favorite artists, rabbis, teachers, yogis, and thinkers to bring you nothing but the best of the best. Tables that will really make you proud. Photos that will actually leave you inspired. That’s the goal, anyway, and I’m so, so excited about it.
(You can find all of that content right over here.)
The truth is, Rosh Hashanah isn’t just different this year because we can’t attend services or see our families; it’s also different because anti-Jewish sentiment is at another all-time high, here and around the world. There’s an urgency in the air—an intensely personal, relentless pressure from within to act, to speak, to stand up. We’re being called to start this new year with more Jewish pride, more energy than ever before. With every tweet, every new headline, every comment, I have felt that urgency—I continue to feel it—every day. I’m sure you feel it too.
So, here, I’m formally extending my hand and inviting you to join in—whether you have never celebrated this holiday or you’ve been here 83 times before. I’m giving you this…these daily recipes and projects and ideas…in the hopes that they will elevate your vision of what this year can be. No matter who you are, you’re welcome here. Welcome to get messy, to ask 8 katrillion questions, and just fall in love with this part of you again or for the first time. Because Judaism isn’t a concept or a punchline or a story from long ago. It’s an exquisite, lived experience, and I am inviting you to live it.
I want this to be the year you decide to relate to Jewish life differently. Not just out of necessity or obligation, but out of sheer joy and wonder. Maybe my blog is what gets you there, or maybe this is just a springboard to something else. Maybe you reach through this and find a book, a video, a teacher, a class, or a quote that speaks to you.
Whatever it is, make room for it, make time for it, and be brave enough to take it seriously. Rosh Hashanah is, after all, a beginning. So begin.
Here.
♥️ שנה טובה
