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A Bisl Torah for the New Year

How do you start over in a world that looks so very upside down?
[additional-authors]
December 31, 2020
Photo by Micha Pawlitzki/Getty Images

How do you begin

After heartbreak and breakdown

Vanished dreams, hurried goodbyes, exhaustion, disappointment, remnants of hope feeling very far away.

How do you start over in a world that looks so very upside down?

How do you begin

After division and dissention

Fractured country, civil discontent, racism, misunderstanding, deep seeded fear pulling us further apart.

How do you start over in a world that feels so angry and misguided?

How do you begin

After loneliness and anguish

Troubled minds, souls unsettled, dejection, depression, purpose lost somewhere in this isolation.

How do you start over in a world where my mind won’t stop screaming?

How do you begin?

In the beginning, there was chaos. Darkness and separation. Confusion and madness, nothingness spinning out of control.

How do you begin?

“Let there be light.” With one divine breath came the ripening of possibility, ingenuity, potential, and growth.

Within bleakness comes a spark. One glowing ember. A flickering candle instilling faith, rooting assurances of better tomorrows.

The promise of a sunrise. The promise of a rainbow. The promise of an ocean breeze. The promise of a smile. The promise of an outstretched hand. The promise of a lingering embrace. The promise of journeys untraveled.

How do you begin?

Let there be light. Let there be laughter. Let there be longing. Let there be love.

We begin again. Standing firm on the chaos that snarls as our feet. Reaching, stretching, wondering, yearning, believing…

That we will… that we must…that we can…begin again.


Rabbi Nicole Guzik is a rabbi at Sinai Temple. She can be reached at her Facebook page at Rabbi Nicole Guzik.

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