The end of August is a time of year that includes many lasts and many firsts.
The summer drawing to a close provides the opportunity to reflect on the various summertime activities that many of us have engaged in over the last few months, while the start of the school year offers the beginning of new friendships, learning opportunities and extracurricular activities for school staff, students and their families. Like many of you, I’ve had a full and fun summer, which included swimming in my neighborhood pool, visiting family in different states, spending time in New York City and on the beach and making a pilgrimage with a friend last week to see Bruce Springsteen in concert in Philadelphia.
My two children are starting their junior year in college and their sophomore year in high school, and both have things they’re excited about, and things they’re not so excited about, ahead of them in the new school year. In the Jewish community, the High Holidays, the holiest days of the Jewish year and the busiest days in a synagogue’s calendar, are coming up at the start of October. When I left the synagogue tonight, I passed crowds heading to William & Mary’s first football game of the season, and as I drove into my neighborhood, I noticed that for the first time it was getting dark before the pool closed at 8 p.m. It’s a moment when SO many significant things are starting, and ending.
I feel that times like these call for and deserve moments and rituals of reflection, appreciation and celebration. The common first-week-of-school “what did you do during your summer vacation” writing assignments and ensuing conversations can provide some of these moments for schoolchildren, but of course most adults don’t have someone requiring them to talk about this. The long holiday weekend can function for some of us as a chance to pause and to look back and look forward, but that doesn’t necessarily come with effective rituals for this purpose. I’d like to therefore share a moment of ritual from the Jewish tradition, one that might help some people to appropriately celebrate these significant moments in time.
Judaism offers a large number of blessings that it’s customary to say on a regular basis — someone who is fully observant is expected to say (at least) 100 prayers each day. The observant Jew participates in three daily prayer services, and on top of that our tradition includes prayers that you say on occasions including when you wake up in the morning, when you wash your hands, when you use the bathroom, and before and after you eat (exactly which prayers you say before your meal depends on what you actually eat).
Our tradition also includes a variety of other blessings, some that we say on holidays and others that we might say upon different special occasions, like witnessing something miraculous in nature. Although many non-Orthodox Jews don’t necessarily say all of these on a regular basis, the presence of so many blessings in our tradition definitively generates a sense of awareness, gratitude and connection to the Divine for the majority of us.
One of our special-occasion blessings is one that we say whenever we do something new, or for the first time in a while. This prayer, which is usually referred to as the Shehecheyanu (pronounced sheh-heh-cheh-yanu, with the ch sounding like the ch in Bach, not church), is officially part of the liturgy for several holidays, including the first days of Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah and Passover. We say it when we’re naming a baby, at bar and bat mitzvahs and at weddings. It’s traditional to say it when you eat a fruit or other food for the first time in its season, and when you purchase and use something significant for the first time, like a new car. The English translation of this prayer is: “Blessed are you, Adonai our God, sovereign of the universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this moment.” The Hebrew for “kept us alive” is shehecheyanu, which is why that’s the unofficial title of the prayer.
The first 10 words of the prayer are the standard beginning of most Jewish prayers and may not feel comfortable or appropriate for non-Jews, but the second half of the blessing, starting with the words “who has kept us alive,” could potentially be relevant and useful to everyone. I invite you to think about the special moments happening in your lives right now, or over the last few months, that you might want to note and celebrate.
When my friend and I walked into the Phillies’ stadium for the concert last week, I felt so incredibly appreciative that I was there. I’ve been attending Bruce Springsteen concerts since 1988, but I hadn’t been to one since 2016. On this night, the weather was perfect, the setting was perfect, the company was perfect, and the music was everything I could have hoped for. During the few moments when I wasn’t completely swept up by the experience of hearing and singing so many of my favorite songs along with 40,000 other Springsteen lovers, I was overwhelmed with gratitude that I had arrived at that particular moment. Without even thinking about it, I said the Shehecheyanu prayer to myself.
When my children started their new school years this week, I felt the same way. At the end of each of my summer trips, at the moment when our son left for college last week and during the darkening hour when our neighborhood pool closes for the last time this summer on Labor Day afternoon, I’ll also feel the same way. I’ll be sorry that the fun of summer has come to an end, and yet I’ll be grateful that God has kept me alive, sustained me and allowed me to reach this particular instant, this moment when something wonderful ended, and when something else that will also hopefully be wonderful is about to begin.
May we all find ways to celebrate and appreciate these memorable moments in our lives. Ken yehi ration — may this be God’s will.
David Katz is the rabbi at Temple Beth El of Williamsburg.
