Monday, September 19, 2011

A Rosh Hashana Gift


Rabbi Josh Broide
Boca Raton Jewish Experience
I spend so much time promoting all of the upcoming programs and classes at the Boca Raton Jewish Experience and all of you know about them well in advance. But sometimes we are all surprised when a special guest shows up unannounced. You can’t plan it and you never know when it’s going to happen, but that’s exactly what happened at Friday Night Live this past Friday night. It was a packed room and standing room only when Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale, New York walked into the room.  In 2011, Newsweek ranked him the 12th most prominent Rabbi in the United States and he is such a warm and special individual. After introducing himself he picked up my guitar taught us some new songs, told us all a special story and left us with a beautiful message about Shabbat. My friends the lesson is simple, as Woody Allen once said “ninety percent of life is just showing up”.

In addition, now that Rosh Hashana is just around the corner I hope that you have either signed up for our free beginner service or told a friend about it. I spent some time last week with Cantor Daniel Adler, going over the tunes and songs that we are going to be using and I can tell you that you are in for a special treat. For those of you that know someone in our community that is not knowledgeable about Rosh Hashana, I urge you to click on the following link and buy them an Easy Outreach Gift. It’s only $4 and it comes with a small jar of honey, some honey cake and a card that contains an explanation of Rosh Hashana. Just think of the incredible opportunity that you have to help someone else experience a sweet new year with such a small and easy gesture.

On Wednesday I will be traveling to New York City to participate in an important rally against the United Nations Durban 3 conference. If you plan on being in the city and would like to join the Boca Raton Jewish Experience, please let me know and I will let you know where we will be meeting. Below you will find the newest video in our “Minute of Inspiration” film series. After viewing it please send this email or send the youtube link to a friend. Finally, please help support my work at the BRJE by voting for me in the Jewish Community Heroes competition that is being sponsored by the Jewish Federations of North America by clicking here. Remember to make a note to vote every day, you might be the one that helps us win the $25,000 award for more incredible Jewish outreach programs in Boca Raton.

As we all begin a new week, please take the time to start preparing for Rosh Hashana, if you haven’t already begun to do so.  Judaism is not a religion that believes that we take a magic pill and all of a sudden we will be forgiven for all of our wrongdoings and will automatically experience a happy new year. On the contrary, we believe that we have to work for it and we have to work hard. If there is someone out there who you might of hurt or something that you need to be forgiven for, now is the time to find those people and ask them for forgiveness. It’s certainly not easy and we have to hope that those people understand that we are sincere and regret having wronged them. If you put in the effort now, I can guarantee you that you will have a much more meaningful High Holiday experience and then you can truly look forward to a happy and sweet new year.
Have a fantastic week!

Inspire yourself to inspire others…
Josh

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