09/14/2026
Shanah Tovah U’Metukah!
This Tishrei 5787, our Dean Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff (’14), shares his Rosh Chodesh thoughts, focusing on our teshuvah to our planet:
Tishrei is a month of holidays. Most are well defined but one is mysterious: Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Day of Assembly. What is the purpose of this holiday?
Interestingly, based on the similarity of the sacrifices, the midrash connects Shmini Atzeret with Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, not with Sukkot.
What are the themes of the High Holidays? Judgement. Repentance. Teshuva. On Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, the concern is who will live and who will die. On Rosh HaShana the judgment is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. After we’ve been sealed for life, what further judgement remains?
R’ Levi said, God said to Israel, my children, be very careful about the sacrifcies. For there is no advocate for the rains like sacrifices. This is why the Torah had to tell us that on the eighth day, we shall have a day of assembly (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 28:3).
The midrash, apparently, notes the High Holiday sacrifices of Shemini Atzeret, and concludes that they are about rain. Shemini Atzeret is Rosh Hashana for the weather.
The weather hasn’t been right for a long time. It may never, in fact, be right again. And the cause is the sins of humanity against the planet. In a general way, there are sins between people and God, and sins between people. Sins against the planet encompass both.
This Tishrei, let our Teshuva lead us to a year of climate repair; a year of rain in its time. Let us rejoice next Tishrei in a world that is heating less rapidly; where asthma rates are down and renewable energy is up. Let this Tishrei be the beginning of planetary change.
