Dear Friend,

In Haazinu (this week’s Torah reading) the Torah gives us a remarkable image of G-d’s relationship with His people:

“Like an eagle awakening its nest… spreading its wings, taking them, carrying them upon its pinions.”

Rashi explains that the eagle is different from other birds. Rather than carrying its young beneath its feet, it carries them above its wings, saying, in effect, Better that the danger reach me than reach my children.

That is an extraordinary image to carry with us into Yom Kippur.

We often approach Yom Kippur thinking primarily about judgment, What did I do this year? Where did I fail? What must I repair?

All of that matters. But before the judgment stands a relationship.

We are G-d’s children.

Chassidic wisdom teaches that Yom Kippur reveals this bond at its deepest level, a connection that our mistakes can obscure, but can never destroy.

Perhaps that is why Yom Kippur can be both the most serious and the most uplifting day of the year. We confront ourselves honestly, yet we do so knowing that we are not standing alone.

We are being carried.

May we enter Yom Kippur with sincerity and confidence, and emerge renewed, forgiven, and ready to soar higher in the year ahead.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Zushe Cunin