Message from Rabi Felipe Yafe for High Hollidays 5778

Dear ATID friends,

Let me introduce myself. My name is Felipe Yafe and I will have the pleasure and honor to share with you in Atid the spiritual experience of the next High Fiestas. In the tradition of Israel, time is not conceived as an absolutely inasible entity. The different moments that occur in their dimension and especially the advent of a new year, offer signs regarding which the Jew is called to prepare to receive what would be offered. From this instance, what is presented to him will always be inextricably linked with both the spiritual and the tangible of his existence. In this sense, the Hebrew calendar has always been an essential guide for the happening in the life of our people. Each season or moment of it is an invitation to let us review the reality in which we find ourselves with the intention that we encourage ourselves to modify those behaviors or attitudes of our lives where harmony and balance are absent. This aspect of our Jewish practice is brilliantly expressed by Abraham J. Heschel in his book 'Shabbat and Modern Man' when, referring to the sacred day of rest, he explains:

'Time is like a vast arid plain. It has grandeur but not beauty. His strange and disturbing power is always feared but never flattered. And then we arrived on the seventh day, the Sabbath. This piece of time exudes happiness and joy to those who recognize it. It envelops the soul, allowing it to slip into our thoughts like a healing balm. Shabbat is a day where the hours do not expel those who preceded them to take their place. It is a day where the concrete possibility of calming anguishes and sorrows, becomes more real. '

When we are about to enter a new year, an instance obviously linked to the passage of time, much of what is referred by the author becomes unavoidably valid. At that time, as in a kind of 'extra-ordinary Shabbat' Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur stand before us as forgers of climates and very special sensations which at the same time challenge and make our souls tremble. The perception that new opportunities are open, both individual and collective to amend and thus become better people, to renew where a hurt yesterday can give way to a healthy today, to repair where it is needed or to rebuild where an affront may have produced a It is a challenge for our daily conformity. It is in this time where our longings and hopes cry out for answers becoming more tangible than ever. However great of it, the most wonderful thing of all is that from the Jewish tradition we are offered to experience all this adventure of the spirit, together and in community.

Hillel the wise used to say to his disciples: '... never depart from the community' (Avot 2: 4). It is precisely from that place that I wish to invite those who so choose, to accompany me and join us to receive the new Hebrew year 5778, together.

Affectionately,
Rab. Felipe Yafe