I was offering a workshop at Huntington Jewish Center. We were exploring courage. What is it that stops us from going forward? What is it that propels us forward? We came up with many answers. The most common thread was: there is that moment in our lives where we can’t stay where we are. We have to respond and move out of stagnation. It doesn’t necessarily feel brave when this ‘event’ occurs. In retrospect, it was a life-changing moment. We ended our learning with this poem from Sheila Peltz Weinberg:

Dear God, God of our mothers and fathers.

Renew us this month and this year

Direct us

Toward goodness and blessing

Toward the joyful

Toward liberation and challenge, as well as 

Toward patience and consolation 

Toward becoming ever more human beings

Let us become capable of supporting ourselves

Our families and friends,

Let us serve our community in dignity.

Direct us

Toward life and peace

Toward observing our blindness

Toward struggling with our goals

Toward forgiving ourselves and each other

Your brought us near with an intension

You gave us the awareness of the cycles of the moon.

May we use our gift as an opportunity

To understand what you intend for us.

Thank you for inviting us to share your holiness and 

This holy moment of the New Moon