September 26, 2025
We are a story telling people. When we sit down at our seder tables, we tell the stories of our past and we think about how our lives are reflected in those stories. We are commanded to tell these stories to our children. What are the stories we tell about ourselves?
When I was younger, my mother would share the stories of her family with me. She shared memories of visiting her grandmother and playing with her dolls. Her family tradition on Passover was that the kids always hid the afikomen and the parents had to bargain it back from the children. She remembered how she would hide under the table and the afikomen would be hidden in her crinoline.
As a child, my mom shared that she chose guitar lessons over religious school and becoming a Bat Mitzvah. When my grandfather died months before I was born, she didn’t have the tools to say the Mourner’s Kaddish. My mother decided to enroll in the Adult B’nai Mitzvah class at our synagogue, which had already started. She took private lessons so she could catch up to the rest of the class. Before she knew it, not only was she reading Hebrew, but she was serving on the board and designing the monthly bulletin. (That was long before we had computers, and she would literally cut apart the text of articles and lay them out on our dining room table.)
Her story mirrors the story of our people; it reflects the ebb and flow of exile and returning home. We all have our own unique stories to tell and as we share them, we see how the stories of others are mirrored through our own. We also see our personal journeys intertwine with the larger Jewish story.
Earlier this year, as we walked through the NOVA Festival Exhibit and Memorial, I was overcome with emotion about how important it was for us to be able to tell our own stories. I was also struck by the fact that so many of us are not fully aware of our own history. I recall enrolling in a Medieval Jewish History course in college and my eyes were opened to so many layers of our history that I had only learned about in passing. We can certainly do more to open our eyes to Jewish history. Learning our story can help instill a sense of pride as we recall the resilience of our past. When we think about our story, how can we help but marvel at the fact that so many of the nations we encountered in the Torah (eg. the Jebusites, the Moabites) are no longer here, but we are? We have endured every exile, every pogrom, every attempt to destroy us. We have had the chutzpah to survive.
As a story-telling people, we need to continue to tell our stories and notice the way they are mirrored and interwoven with the stories that have been shared about our people for generations. On Yom Kippur afternoon, we will have the opportunity to immerse ourselves in storytelling. First, during Stories from the Bomb Shelter at 1:30 pm, we will engage in dialogue with Sylvia Shafran and Alaina Towne who were caught in Israel during the 12 Day war with Iran. At 3:00 pm, our Yom Kippur afternoon service will weave the stories of our people’s past as they are mirrored through individual stories of our congregants. Our Beth Tikvah members will reflect on themes that emerge from the Torah. At 4:30 pm, our Yizkor service will invite us to the shadow of memory when we think about our loved ones and how they shape and guide us.
We are a storytelling people. Every opportunity to share a story enriches our own sense of memory and, in many instances, reshapes it. As we learn more about our past, we dive deeper into the pool of our history and dig through the layers of the past to uncover our people’s treasures. Our memories shape our present and invite us to chart our own paths forward. Yom Kippur afternoon will be a powerful opportunity for us to continue the journey of sacred reflection that occurs during this season.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rick Kellner