THE DIFFICULTY OF THE HIGH HOLIDAYS

--By Anne Field

To be completely honest about it, I look forward to the High Holidays with dread. I miss my mother on Yom Kippur more than any other time of the year, and it doesn’t seem to get any easier. I’ve always thought there’s a rawness about the High Holidays, and I guess that makes me especially vulnerable. But, also, because the holidays are so central to the Jewish year, they’re linked to my deepest feelings about the religion and, therefore, about my mother: I attribute the strength of my Jewish identity to her example. Then there’s the fact that, the last years of her life, we used to go to services at the PJC together. Anyway, I’d love to wax on in eloquent terms about the real meaning of the holidays and so on, but mostly, they just make me very sad. Maybe I’m not the only one who feels this way?

-Anne Field is a member of the Pelham Jewish Center.