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From the Bimah
October 2005

Fifty-five years ago, the Jewish world lost a great man: Rabbi Milton Steinberg.

Up until his untimely death at age forty-six, he served the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City. Steinberg knew his life was nearing its end. For years he suffered from a congenital heart defect.

After a lengthy hospital stay he was at last able to address his beloved congregation.

He began by saying: "To the husbands and wives who have one another: How precious is your lot and good fortune. Love one another while you yet may."With tear filled eyes he added: "And to the parents, how precious is the gift of your children -- never, never be too busy for the wonder and miracle of them. They will be grown up soon enough, and be grown away too."

Steinberg's insight is particularly poignant with the approaching Yamim Noraim, Days of Awe. As a brief interlude to our frenzied schedules come the introspective questions posed by the holiday -- jarring questions: What will the New Year bring to me and my family; to the ones I care about most? What changes will I undergo? Will I be able to cope?

In a way that only he could express, the late Rabbi Steinberg's insights continue to comfort and inspire long after his passing. They offer one viable solution to the angst that comes with the holiday's probing, often disconcerting questions.

Steinberg reasoned: "Only with God can we ease the intolerable tension of our existence. For only when God is given, can we hold life at once infinitely precious and yet as a thing lightly to be surrendered. Only because of God is it made possible for us to clasp the world, but with relaxed hands; to embrace it, but with open arms."

So, as we celebrate and struggle with the subtly and depth of these Yamim Noraim, remember to "clasp the world, but with relaxed hands." Remember also to breathe, take a spiritual moment away from the relentless pressures of life, and as you do -- inhale God's love -- feel God's immediacy.

By doing so, perhaps you might be able to answer some of the seemingly unanswerable questions posed by this most important period of time, these Days of Awe.

May all of us benefit from an upcoming year filled with health, joy and Godliness. I wish you a heartfelt happy New Year.

Rabbi Michael Gotlieb