WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY, DAVID

Dear Friends,

I have decided to start a blog. (I know. I state this like one who announces his intention to set out to discover the undiscovered.) My hope is that I will be in regular contact with members of the Pelham Jewish Center and anyone else who would like to be "in the loop." (Feel free to send me their email addresses if they want to be added to the list). I will not post things for the sake of posting because I know that your time is too valuable for that. I will post something once per week (my fingers are crossed behind my back so I can't be held to this). I feel blessed to be surrounded by very interesting friends, colleagues, and congregants who have important and engaging ideas about Judaism and the world, so I will enlist them to share their thoughts on this blog as well. I hope to democratize the conversation and open it up to anyone willing to participate, so if you have something to say, please send it to me.

I am kicking the blog off in the month of Elul, the Hebrew month in which we begin to think about the Yamim Noraim, the High Holy Days. It is my experience that if one does not think much about the themes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur well before they arrive, it is very difficult to find them transformative. Their power can be found in the process that leads up to them. In this spirit, I will try to post an entry on this blog each day of Elul. They will be written by many different people; the only requirement is that they are thoughtful. I hope that the postings will spark an idea, a feeling, an important question, or some inspiration that will help get you in the mind frame for the Yamim Noraim. This way, when they arrive, you will have already started the introspection necessary to make them meaningful.

I wish you a healthy new year full of love and fulfillment.

David A. Schuck