Joni Mitchell famously sang, ‘they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.’ We at KI didn’t pave paradise, but we did put down a new parking lot in these last few days. Is the rabbi about to make a new parking lot have some kind of Jewish meaning? Is it even possible? Of course it’s possible. 

Like our parking lot, so much is about to be new. In just over a week, we will welcome a new year, 5787. Kids are heading back to school for a new year. A new season is on the horizon. Our college kids find themselves maybe in a new dorm or new place altogether. Maybe you are entering a new phase of life or settling into a new home. New is all about us. 

Our new parking lot is part of our preparation for the great influx about to happen here at KI. The high holy days are approaching. Opening days of pre-school and religious school are here. All the myriad programming we’ve been planning is about to launch. We are preparing for a full and meaningful year ahead. Indeed, during this month of Elul, we are meant to devote ourselves to preparing in earnest for a new Jewish year. What are our goals? What are our prayers? Where do we want to go this year spiritually, intellectually, personally? Who do you hope to become this year? Where do you hope to do better? What do we want to change about ourselves or our world? What path do we hope to pave this year?  

These are good questions, honest questions; they are Jewish questions.  

In truth, I look forward to Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur all year long. To me, they feel like family reunions. We come back together after a long summer. We see familiar faces. We hear familiar tunes. We put aside the news and the noise to tap into something much more lasting and fundamental. I love the full sanctuary. Together, we go where our people have gone for centuries, exploring the liturgy and Torah portions that grant us some perspective, some reminder of what matters. We hear the call of the shofar exactly as our grandparents and great-grandparents heard it in their time. To be sure, the holy days have us not only look ahead to a new year, we also look back to recall the many dear souls no longer with us. We remember them, their presence, their love, the extraordinary lives they lived.

When you drive into our newly paved parking lot, ask yourself about the paths you are paving in your life exactly now, at this time of new beginnings. What are the choices you are making now for the sake of a more content, more whole, more fulfilled future? May the path ahead of all of us be smooth and kind. May it be a good year for us, for our community, for Israel and the human family.