Rabbi Karen Glazer Perolman announces that joy alone is no longer enough. Joy without empathy, belonging and conflict is not sturdy enough to withstand the challenges of our world and be in relationships. The complexities of October 7, war with Hamas, hostage release and ceasefire are the Unetaneh Tokef for our own identities, asking what will happen in the time we still have? Who is willing to listen? Who needs to be right for the sake of being right? Who wants to forgive? Who is still holding a grudge? Who is going to walk away and who is going to stay? What are we willing to risk letting the healthy heat burn, to survive, for the sake of those who come after us? Rabbi Perolman’s invitation is to stay. It is too easy to walk out the door and leave. Re-engage because a healthy heat means everyone can be heard.

On this Kol Nidre, Rabbi Gewirtz says “Avinu Malkeinu, send us the prophets, the ones who love us enough to tell what we never, ever want to hear.” Compelling us to connect to what we really need and yearn for from the deepest parts of our being, propelling us to be real as God listens to our prayers and intense longing, Rabbi Gewirtz addresses AI and focuses on our necessity to be whole, healthy, fulfilled, not lonely in our own homes and recover through this essential check in on Kol Nidre.

Where did you go just now? Was it a place past? Did you sit in discomfort? Do you delight in nostalgia? Rabbi Karen Perolman remembers why it is we come together on this night of nostalgia: to return to pain and healthfully return to the past to live firmly in the present. Yes, nostalgia can manage stress and pain. As we live in the current nostalgic era, Jews have been rebooting for 5,787 years, gathering on the first of Tishrei to recite the same prayers, hear the shofar and allow ourselves to be pulled into the past all to explore the spiritual work done on these days of return. Listen further to discover the power of nostalgia, spiritual time travel as we turn our hearts toward the past to create a flourishing future.