Glimmers of Light: Reflections on Hope for the Days of Awe 5785

We invited contributors, including JTS faculty, administration, alumni, and students, to reflect on how the liturgy of the Yamim Nora’im are helping them navigate present-day challenges. Explore poignant texts and inspiring interpretations below or download the entire reader to focus your thoughts and actions during this High Holiday season.

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Support for the High Holiday Reader is made possible by Shelly and Larry Gross, in loving memory of their parents Lillian and Louis Konheim (z”l) and Joseph Gross (z”l).

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Glimmers of Light: Reflections on Hope for the Days of Awe 5785
Online Edition

The Importance of Showing Up

Hillary Gardenswartz, (KGS, DS ’07), Director of Student Experiences, Civic
Spirit, and Board Member, JTS

With so much happening in these unsettling and unstable times, it is reasonable to want to simply check out and stay in our personal bubble. . . When simply getting out of bed some days is a victory, why add the obligation to show up for others?

Feel Everything

Dr. Yael Landman, Assistant Professor of Bible, JTS

In incredibly difficult times, it is sometimes easier to focus on going through the motions of ritual, but Joel challenges us to feel everything, full-heartedly, however unbearable that may seem.

Sacred Words in Liturgy and Life

Dr. Shira Billet, Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics, and Director of the Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice, JTS

Human communication, the commitment to taking words seriously, is further imperiled in an age where our words are mediated through the technologies of social media and artificial intelligence, and the crippling social phenomena of political polarization and widespread mistrust.

A Call for Responsibility

Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, Henry R. and Miriam Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections of the JTS Library

U-netanah Tokef is a prayer deeply rooted in the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah. It proved so popular that this Rosh Hashanah–themed prayer became standard on Yom Kippur, as well, despite its clear foregrounding of judgement (Rosh Hashanah) rather than forgiveness (Yom Kippur).

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