As I was catching up with news yesterday, after an inspiring Rosh Hashana, my eye caught a compilation of messages from Rabbis and spiritual leaders across the Jewish spectrum, compiled by one of the keenest minds in Jewish publishing, Andrew Sillow-Caroll, Editor at Large for The Jewish Week, and a contributing Editor at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Many thanks to Andrew for gathering these insights.

A number of the brief thoughts and messages were from Rabbis I know personally. Others, from several I have listened to or read in the past. Some, from those I had never encountered before. And they shared a multiplicity of ideas, reminding me that we are a colorful, diverse, and curious people, but our rootedness in knowledge and the urge to advocate kindness and righteousness always brings us together. I will do my best to distill them even further, and draw some meaningful conclusions from them.

One of these messages was from Rabbi Wendy Zierler. Like me, she grew up in Toronto, in the modern orthodox community. We went to the same camp, and I recall her energy and enthusiasm as an older CIT. We also both lived in Riverdale, NY, a truly special, compassionate and intellectually curious community. Having traversed a long career in Jewish text, thought, and leadership, she is now a Rabbi and a Professor of Jewish Literature at Hebrew Union College (and I have one of her books in my library).

Rabbi Zierler focused on the repeated commandment VeAhavtem Et HaGer - and you shall love the stranger, because we were the abused stranger in the land of Egypt. Even as we deal in our own time with the experience of being abused, canceled, attacked and ‘othered’, we cannot, must not, give up on the basic demand our Torah makes on us, again and again. Love the stranger, and learn from your own experience. Never lose your humanity and essential goodness even when under siege. Aspire to engage others in a state of kindness, rather than war.

Another message came from Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, Senior Rabbi at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. I have listened to him on several occasions this year. He spoke of the essential need to act righteously as the Almighty expects, even more than to think and debate and obsess - whether that is over the minutiae of the Law or the constant barrage of news we find ourselves obsessively doomscrolling through. It is through action that we bring hope. One good act begets another, as the Talmud says, mitzvah goreret mitzvah.

Rabbi Jeffrey Fox, Rosh Yeshiva and Dean at Yeshivat Maharat began his short message with a simple but profound statement. “Religion is upstream from politics.” It seems so straightforward, but it is easy to forget in the tumult we’ve become all too familiar with these last years. Our ethical and moral responsibilities start long before we place an election sign on our lawn or enter a ballot box. The demands we make of ourselves and measure against our own expectations every year have their source in who we are and what our heritage bestows upon us, rather than in a policy or a contentious issue. Our identity should inform how we respond to these, rather than the other way around.

I’ve had the privilege, on a number of occasions, to engage in conversation with Rabbi Moshe Hauer, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union. I’ve always found him to be rooted in the wellsprings of our tradition, of course, but also in the experiences and stories that illuminate our history. He related a story told by Rabbi Yitzchak Herzog, z’l, a former Chief Rabbi of Israel and one of the brilliant Herzog family that has given the Jewish people leaders, thinkers, diplomats and strategists throughout the last hundred years. R’ Herzog was in a DP camp in Germany with survivors just after the Shoah, and he described spending the holiday of Shavuot with them, watching amazed and profoundly moved as they danced and sang Ani Maamin ‘I Believe’ for hours and hours, their hope for a better future intact and unstilled even by the horrors they had experienced.

As Rabbi Hauer wrote, “Witnessing that — even hearing about it — stirs our faith in the Jewish people. But that same faith can be stirred by what is happening here and now in synagogues all over this country and the world. Look around the room and it will be hard to understand how everyone got there, gathering from the four corners of Jewish life, people who grew up closer or farther from tradition. And yet they are here, we are here, standing together as Jews, praying together the High Holiday prayers for a better future for the entire world, where God’s presence is recognized and His word lived by.”

I think that is a fitting way to conclude the survey of wonderful ideas in the JTA compiled by Andrew Sillow-Caroll. You can find all of them here.

I’d only add that we are blessed here in Rockland with no less inspiring and insightful Rabbinic leadership in our synagogues and throughout our community. From the Board of Rabbis to the Rebbes of every manner of chassidut, from the selfless Rabbis and Rebbetzins of Chabad to the teachers in our own Midreshet, and each of those who carry the mantle of spiritual guidance in our synagogues and our temples, we have an abundance of passionate and dedicated Jewish leaders. I extend my thanks to each and all of them, for their advice, encouragement, and guidance. We are illuminated by the radiance of Torah and tradition, and they are the lens through which we see its refracted, brilliant light. We thank them profoundly for their holy work.

Gmar Tov!