High Holidays: Making Your Soul a Vessel for Change
For those of you, like me, who love a podcast, or who are exploring the medium, I loved being interviewed on the latest Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations podcast. You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It is titled, “High Holidays: Making Your Soul a Vessel for Change.” In it I share how you and I can prepare for the High Holidays, what goes into leading them, and even a little teaser about what I’ll be sharing in my sermons this year. I hope you listen because I think it is a good encapsulation of some of the spirit that takes place here at Society Hill Synagogue.
Summary of the episode:
In this pre-High Holidays episode, Bryan Schwartzman asks Rabbi Nathan Kamesar how he prepares to lead Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. They discuss ways people can the most out of the holidays, whether they go to synagogue or not. Although as a congregational rabbi, Kamesar does make a pitch for showing up in-person or virtually. He also discusses his own contemporary theology as it relates to the High Holidays and also addresses the existential dread many may be feeling from climate change, the perils facing democracy and so much more. More broadly, he offers a defense of Jewish prayer and speaks about how the traditional prayer structure can be meaningful today. And, father-to-father, Bryan asks for advice for young parents who might be struggling to find the time for serious reflection, let alone transcendence. The short answer: cut yourself some slack.
