Happy New Year!

I can't believe it is almost the end of September already. We just finished celebrating Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This was the first time in ten years I have been able to celebrate with my family. It was so wonderful to be with them at synagogue. It is an experience I didn't realize just how much I missed.
My dad came over to my fiance's parents house for break-fast. I haven't been to a real break-fast since 1998. I couldn't stop eating the kugle and deviled eggs and egg salad. When you are away from those things for a long time, you really lose appreciation for how amazing they are!
Services I attended today were at the new temple off of Main St., and the facility is stunning! The Rabbi and Chazan were equally as impressive in their leading of the congregation. There is not a shade of doubt in my mind that I will gladly go back for the next holiday!
Yom Kippur has always been an interesting holiday concept for me. Purification and cleansing the mind and body of sins and toxins. Fascinating really. Even though the weather was freezing today (wind gusts up to 40 mph!!!!!), the goose bumps I had inside were from hearing the shofar blow. Every Yom Kippur the shofar marks an end and a beginning from one year to the next. When I hear it, I think "tradition!". Our ancestors listened to the same takeeah!, waiting for the final sound to escape the shofar before greeting the stranger next to them with a "happy new year!" gleefully thinking "we made it!". It marks an end of the old, and a beginning of the new. What a marvelous concept. Take with you all of your mistakes and conquests, and apply both to a new start.
L'Shanah Tova!
May peace, harmony and health grace you and your families this new year.