Dear Congregation Beth Israel members and friends,

Happy secular new year!

I love having two opportunities each year to turn the page and feel the hope that comes with new beginnings. 2026 is a book as-yet unwritten. With what will we fill its pages?

Because of how the Jewish calendar and the secular calendar overlap this year, there are no Jewish holidays other than Shabbat during this January. Tu BiShvat, which sometimes lands this month, will be on February 1. (And we’re planning a new kind of Tu BiShvat seder – new to us, anyway – featuring wine and cheese pairings for each of the four seasons / four worlds through which we journey.)

A month with no holidays could feel empty. But I’m choosing to think of this January as a gentle time of preparation. This is the quiet snowy month when the bulbs are resting beneath the snow, getting ready to think about sprouting. The roots of the trees are connecting with the earth, getting ready to think about sending sap upward at Tu BiShvat. And as we wait for the physical sap to be ready to rise, we can feel-into that same anticipation: what is preparing to rise in us?

We’ve come through Chanukah candle-lighting and the darkest time of the year. We’re at the beginning of the climb toward spring, lit by the full moons of Tu BiShvat and Purim, which both always fall on full moon, as does the first seder. Our Torah readings will take us into the book of Exodus and the story of our liberation from Egypt, which also points us toward spring. We’ll retell that story with spirit and song, parsley and salt water, matzah and haroset at seder.

Pesach is our emergence from Mitzrayim – a word that evokes not just Egypt, but also the Narrow Place. What are the meitzarim, the constricted spaces, in our hearts and in our lives? Where and how do we feel constrained and stuck… and how can we live into the spiritual possibility of expansiveness? This time of year invites us into that journey. How can we feel our way toward freedom and hope, even if the world around us might feel like it’s pressing in?

These questions are communal, though our answers are individual. One of my answers is – of course – the spiritual practices that link us with the coming spring. Join us on February 1 for our Tu BiShvat seder. Join us for this month’s wintertime celebrations of Shabbat beside the snow-covered meditation labyrinth, and for Soul Spa where we’ll delve into the riches of the Passover story and the midrashic stories we’ve told as we’ve sought to make meaning.

Together we’ll walk the spiraling path toward spring, and freedom, and the spiritual expansiveness that answers every constricted heart.

Blessings to all,

— Rabbi Rachel