About our High Holy Day theme:

 

As we open the Book of Life to the new year 5786, the cruelty of this moment threatens to overwhelm us. This past year has seen the grinding on of war, suffering, and starvation in Gaza, the languishing of hostages, harsh suppression of those who speak truth to power, detention and deportation of our immigrant neighbors, demolishing of structures of care for our trans family, for the sick, and the poor, and the rise fascism and oligarchy. 

 

At the turning of this year, we cry out for answers:

 

What is the medicine for the moral injury and physical harm we are experiencing? 

What wisdom can we turn to for guidance?

What is required of us?

 

The Hebrew prophet Micah cries out to God in his time, a time when corrupt leaders oppressed the poor, asking the same question. The Divine voice responds, “You have been told, O mortal, what is good and what the Holy One demands of you: Only to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)

 

This year we return to the ikar—the essence—of our humanity and of our tradition. This year as we approach the 250th anniversary of the founding of this country and the 10th anniversary of Malkhut’s founding, we embrace radical goodness. We gather, lift up our voices, and call upon each other to stand firm in our vision of the world to come: a world of peace, joy, love, and justice.​​​​​​​​​​​​

 

About our High Holy Day theme imagery:​​

Thank you to artist and Malkhutnik Ziv Schneider for creating the powerful animation inspired by this year's theme.​

 

Artist statement: I envisioned an upward gaze, searching and questioning, amid a flood. A flood of information that overwhelms and paralyzes; an emotional flood that comes with being alive, Jewish, and Israeli in this moment. A sense of trying to stay afloat, both literally and figuratively, while processing what it means to witness and respond.​