Mardi Meditations #7

Rosh Hashanah 5786.

I have passed into the liminal space between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, known as the ten days of teshuvah. This year I feel the melisma of the season’s rhythms profoundly. On one ledger is the circling rhythm of nature with its cycles and its endless returning. On the other ledger is the arc of time with its series of thresholds, one-way portals that signal ends and beginning, the passage from one moment to another, from chapter to chapter and age to age.

I have marked this endlessly new season with several favorite rituals and some variations on familiar themes. I spent a spa day at Jeju, enjoying the “gold and silver sauna” and my hour spent swimming laps in the warm mosaic-clad pool the best. 

Last night, the kids and I joined Ma’alot for a sunset service on top of Arabia Mountain. We watched the sun set as we finished Aleinu. When I returned home that evening, I felt strangely empty and alone, but I awoke this morning with new energy and a kind of watery resolve. I am ready to flow through whatever the next ten days have in store. And I am ready to welcome the year ahead.