the year of hinneni

As I looked through various Rosh Hashanna videos over this past week I was astounded at some of the cool things that are being done. I was struck, in particular by this one that Jewish Federation os Greater Philadelphia commissioned that talks about how you can get involved in your community.

For those of you reading this and know me well, I often talk about community and the power of it (as I did in a Buzzing for Change blog post last week). This time of year it’s on my mind even more as we are still welcoming new faces on to campus and into Hillel. While I hope that Jewish freshmen find their community here, it is more important to me that they find a Jewish community wherever they are comfortable; and even more important to me than that is that they help to create change in that community.

I am going to call the year of 5770 (the new Jewish year that starts on Friday night) the year of hinneni. Literally translated as “here I am” – but it has taken to mean a responsibility for your community. I want to challenge each of you to take responsibility for your community. How you define community and how you define responsibility are up to you. Use this time of reflection to realize that you have infinite potential – think about how you are going to use that to do Tikun Olam (repair the world).

The rest is in your hands.

Shana Tova,
-Judah