News & Announcements

Forty-five days. If you’re reading this on August 1^st, we are 45 days away from the new year, Rosh Hashanah.  While the calendars for the rest of the world won’t change for a few more months, many of us are feeling some sort of beginning. Students are getting ready to go back to school, buying their binders and back to school clothes. The summer is ending, and before we know it the High Holidays will be upon us once again.

As I sit here in the middle of July, trying to write an article for August, I’m reminded of a Staples television commercial that ran for years. In it, a middle-aged man danced through the aisles of a store to the lyrics, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Dragging behind him were sad looking children whose depression was only worsened by their father’s happiness. The announcer then came on to declare, “that’s right, they’re going back to school!”

For many of us, it’s an exciting time, a time of transition and expectation, a time of anxiety and anticipation. The new school year is beginning, and the Jewish year is ending. While you’ve no doubt read it before, this is a time for us to sit back and to take stock of our lives.

When I was a student, I dreaded the fall. I loved the freedom and undemanding days of summer and was always reluctant to let them give way to the structure and stricture of the school year. Even as a parent, I don’t relish my children going back to school. I don’t get excited about getting them up and to school on time, of all the practices and rehearsals, the meetings, and the parties to which they’ll be invited.

This holiday period is naturally a time of new beginnings and here at PJTC, we are in the midst of that transition. Like the entire world around it PJTC has been through a lot of changes in the past few years. I was brought here to help this community process some of those changes and work towards ensuring that the future is as bright as it can be for this wonderful community.

I have had the opportunity to work and live in many different communities over the past few years. What immediately struck me when I came to PJTC for the first time was the warmth and enthusiasm of this community. 

The only way to ensure that PJTC lives up to its amazing potential is if all our voices are heard. To that end, I hope you will take the opportunity to meet with me in the coming weeks and months (maybe after the HHDs, though). To some of you, this is our first meeting. To you, I’d like to say “hello,” and I hope that we are able to meet in person some time.

In many ways, it’s a stressful time of the year. But for me, personally, there is one way in which this is the “most wonderful time of the year.” I love the High Holy Days. I love the obligation we feel to take stock of ourselves and our lives. I look forward to the difficult task of introspection that is demanded of us during these holidays.

I would like to invite you to join us for the High Holy Days in a different way this year. I invite you to participate in the ELUL project – a pre-holiday writing project. Simply take a few minutes to sit down and share some reflection that relates – even a little bit – to the High Holiday season. It can be a remembrance, a teaching, a story; it can be a reflection about family, about community, about Israel or Torah, or what being Jewish means to you; it can contain comments about humanity, prayer, God, children, holidays. Just share a small thought — a bit of yourself --with the rest of us. (It can be as short as a few sentences or as long as a page.)

 Please know that these will be shared in a safe, supportive, communal environment, but if you would be more comfortable keeping your contribution anonymous, that’s fine.

If you have any questions, or would like to set up a meeting with me, please feel free to email me at rabbigoldstein@PJTC.net or you can email Daniel Platt at daniel@pjtc.net

May it be a year of blessing and happiness for us all.

Rabbi Ben Goldstein