The Hebrew month of Adar begins on Wednesday, February 17. Adar is the almost-Spring month that contains the joyous holiday of Purim, which commemorates the deliverance of the Jews of ancient Persia through the deeds of the heroine, Esther and her cousin, Mordechai. Esther’s story reminds us to have the courage to challenge fate, the faith to advocate for what is right. As we fight illness, we become like Esther, we put on her garment of strength and hope.

Reaching out for wholeness is such a struggle. Coping with treatments and changed schedules, changed days and nights. How can we ever face this new life we did not choose? Reach out for help in your climb to wholeness; reach out for God’s hand.

February 1, the 15th of Shevat, is the holiday of Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of the Trees. It is a time to plant and plan, to think about nourishing the earth as we nourish our hope for growth and change. An old story relates how at midnight on Tu B’Shevat, the trees reach out their branches and embrace. So should we reach out to embrace life, our own healing and the healing of others. Plant something on Tu B’Shevat; plant your own future.

Sukkot is one of the three Pilgrimage Festivals. Our Pilgrimage these days must be spiritual. But we can still enjoy the serenity of sitting in a Sukkah - a fragile structure that evokes the booths built by the ancient Israelites so they could be close to their fields as they brought in the harvest.

My daughter, E.G., and I were talking about psalms the other day. A student at Lake Forest College, she is taking a course in Hebrew Bible with the distinguished Rabbi Herbert Bronstein, Senior Scholar at North Shore Congregation Israel and editor of the beautiful Passover Haggadah published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Her assignment was to select and comment on her personal response to ten psalms. She was surprised at her reaction to many of the psalms. She commented in her paper: “Perhaps this is because of the book of psalms my mother wrote. I have always found great meaning and resonance in her writings.”

For the past three years, it’s been my honor, as Resident Psalmist at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue, to compose new psalms for the High Holy Days. What a thrill to hear Rabbi Peter Knobel or Rabbi Eleanor Smith read my words to open worship those evenings. I am humbled as I listen; I am grateful to continue to reach such moments.

Surgery.
Major or minor…"just a biopsy"…what an exhausting time for the patient and for those who wait.

One

A Song for Comfort Before Surgery
For H.J.L.