The story of Leah is a profound narrative of unrequited love, longing, and ultimately, acceptance. Leah's journey, as reflected in the names she gives her children, offers a timeless lesson in embracing life's adversities and finding contentment within our circumstances.

The Lord responds to Rebekah’s question of “Why is this happening to me?” by showing her that she is seen, cared for, loved, and understood. It’s not a quick solution or a trite aphorism; it’s simply a move toward trust and learning.

In the three prayers that we have read these past two weeks, we see the heroes of the story, our forefathers and foremothers, invoke the character of God in their supplications before the Lord.

The sages see Abraham as a paragon of love and inclusion. He brought people from the surrounding societies in Haran and Canaan close to the one God through his example and his generosity.

Living in today’s world, we too face many unknowns. As people who profess a faith in the God of Abraham, trusting also in the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah, we to come face to face with challenges throughout our journeys.

In God’s pursuit of justice, some will be brought low, and others lifted up, but in the end, in the fulness of time, all of creation will be made whole once more.

Though we can’t turn back the hands of time, we can—and do—revisit time by rolling the Torah scroll back and recycling the stories noted therein. This we do this every year around this time: on Simchat Torah. And so we begin again . . .

What a tragic and challenging year! We might be very much tempted to say “good riddance” to the last year, 5784. Yet our tradition reminds us to welcome every New Year with a sense of hope and encouragement.

Everybody needs heroes, and heroism can be contagious. In these trying times, Yeshua’s sacrifice encourages us to courageously go forward to meet the challenges of life without a layer of self-protection.

With Rosh Hashanah we enter the Ten Days of Awe that will continue through Yom Kippur. But we live in a time when it’s hard to be awed . . . because awe is the response to the presence of a transcendent other, something or someone far greater than ourselves, greater than our understanding or our ability to perceive.