Dear Congregation Beth Israel members and friends,

What a beautiful holiday season it has been thus far. It was such a joy to be with you on Rosh Hashanah and during the first half of Yom Kippur!

As you may know by now, I experienced several TIAs during Yom Kippur morning services. (It was difficult for me to speak at times, and the words either wouldn’t come out, or came out wrong.) Thankfully each episode passed quickly and I was able to continue praying with you through the end of Yizkor. After that I went to the hospital for the remainder of Thursday and all of Friday. I am now released from the hospital and recovering at home comfortably.

I am endlessly grateful to Rabbi Jarah Greenfield for stepping up to lead the last two services of Yom Kippur without me. I hated being apart from y’all and not being able to finish the holiday with everyone!

These new TIAs are part of a pattern that began twenty years ago with my two strokes. The good news is that we may be approaching a theory on why this keeps happening and hopefully how to prevent it from happening again. The imperfect news is that before we can move forward with that diagnosis, we need to rule out everything else that might be causing this. So my next few weeks (and months) will contain a lot of doctors’ visits.

In the immediate short term, I will be mostly home and resting for the next couple of weeks. Deep thanks to R. Seth Wax and R. Pam Wax for picking up emergency pastoral care while I am recovering. Keep an eye on CBI’s weekly e-announcements for any changes to our schedule.

In the longer term, this provides all kinds of great opportunities for me to practice hakarat ha-tov (seeking out what’s good) and mindfulness – I get to practice what I preached!

I am deeply grateful to Natalie Matus and Wendy Penner, our board co-presidents, for their support of my taking time to rest and recover. Please reach out to them with any questions. And I am grateful for every one of you, and for your messages of care and concern.

Sukkot (which began on October 6) is, among other things, a festival of impermanence. We build these beautiful sukkahs and decorate them, knowing that they will not last. We savor the passing beauties of the season, knowing the leaves will fall. As Yom Kippur reminded us, our lives too are temporary. Our work is to figure out how to live with joy not despite our temporariness, but embracing it. (As my mother of blessed memory used to say, “make hay while the sun shines.”)

I wish all of you a joyous z’man simchateinu, “season of our rejoicing.” May Sukkot remind us that though we’re not here forever, we’re here now, and we can choose joy.

Blessings to all,

— Rabbi Rachel