Season of Joy
Newsletter Aug 31, 2026 Together, we're #keepingitsacred... There are certain people in this world whose love is so expansive, to be in their company is deeply healing. They see the good in you and reflect it back. They guide you with important clarifying questions to encourage your growth without shame. Their presence delights your heart, re-aligns your soul, and honors your humanity. Dolly Parton z”l was one of these people. My grandma, Fruma Kit Endler z”l, for whom KITS is named, was one of these people. These qualities, I believe, are God-like.
I believe the Creator of all is full of an unbending love for all creations. Brimming with warmth and encouragement and championing the flourishing of our potential. It can be hard to see these qualities at the season of the High Holy Days. Some people think of the Days of Awe to be days of dread, shame, and self-loathing. A day to remember just how much we have missed the mark. But that’s not at the heart of this season. True, we are meant to take time to do a cheshbon hanefesh, an accounting of the soul. But this is not like being called into the principal’s office because you’re in trouble. You’re not even called to stand before your rabbi to confess your shortcomings! (Your rabbi has some, too!)
Our tradition, instead, encourages us to take some time to sit with ourselves and consider how we have lived our lives this past year. We are to do this never with a heart looking to degrade our worth. But rather just to encourage us to live a more full expression of the best of us in the new year. This time is a time for us to whisper to ourselves where we can do better, and to make amends with those we have hurt. And, It is also a time to dream big into what a full flourishing of our potential might look like. Tradition tells us that Yom Kippur is understood as the happiest day of the year. Recently, one of our participants in our Introduction to Judaism class asked how this squares with a holiday built on confessionals for personal and communal sins, fasting, and pleading to seal us for a good new year?
Well, have you ever had an apology accepted? Truly accepted? Like when you might have been carrying a load of guilt for awhile and you know you have made time to address it, ask for forgiveness, and then, with an act of compassion, they accept your apology? Then, you don’t have to carry the burden any more, and you can go back to being friends, and growing the relationship from there. It is a beautiful feeling to know that you have the power to change for good. To be welcomed back into your potential.
Our tradition teaches that is only through the process of forgiveness that we can reach real, satisfying elation. Besides, what’s the alternative? To go through life to amass more and more guilt and shame with each passing year, only to have it accumulate on our hearts and souls bringing us down and ruining our lives? No thank you! So, my hope for us this season is to not fear the process of introspection, and repair with dread. But rather with a sense of a loving God rooting for us to take this precious season as an opportunity to refresh, renew, and rejoice!
And, I invite you and yours to join us for all of our High Holy Day (and other!) programming. Details are here: keepingitsacred.com/highholidays and below. Please share.
Entering this season together and rooting for one another, that’s how we’re keeping it sacred.Together, we’re #keepingitsacred…
Rabbi Heather Miller Founder, Keeping It Sacred |
The above is an excerpt from a Keeping It Sacred newsletter. If you want to read the entire newsletter or any from our archives, please head over to: keepingitsacred.com/news And if you'd like the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week, please share your name and email address in the fields at the bottom of the page in the purple boxes. Thanks for your interest, and thanks for #keepingitsacred… |