As you spend time reflecting throughout this month of Elul and the Chagim (holidays) I encourage you to think all the way back to your childhood.

I am blessed to enjoy tefillah in a Jewish Day School.  I get to see students connect to the fun, meaningful, and age appropriate Wornick service.  There is laughter, listening, and learning through our daily rituals, liturgy, special traditions and celebrations.  Rabbi Sacks z’l captured why we should not be surprised to see children embrace our traditions. 

“Children are naturally spiritual. They are fascinated by the vastness of the universe and our place in it. They have the same sense of wonder that we find in some of the greatest of the psalms. They love stories, songs and rituals.”

He goes on to say what a shame it is when a child misses out on this. “Abandon ritual and faith you risk starving him or her of some of the most important elements of emotional and psychological well-being.” 

The 2015 The Spiritual Child by Lisa Miller, not a Jewish work, relies on research evidence to make the same point. Children who grow up where spirituality is part of the atmosphere are better prepared to manage through adolescence and into adulthood.

Rabbinic sages said we all start with a fresh and pure neshema (soul) from the heavens that allows children to have a natural connection to spirituality.  We see it in their tremendous capacity for love, wonder, and excitement.  As I dive into my siddurim and reflections of this time of year I try to use that childhood lens as much as I can.

גְּמַר חֲתִימָה טוֹבָ

Gmar Chatimah Tova

Dean Goldfein

Interim Head of School