Jewish high holiday sermons

 The local synagogue has a student rabbi for the HHD, like the synagogue I attended growing up. The first year, I thought the guy was just okay, but I really like the guy who came the second year. He was supposed to return for a second year, but he is have some undiagnosable health problem, so he couldn't come to GF for the HHD. Instead, we had a sub - the chief chaplain at the Minneapolis VA. I had low expectations, but he was terrific.

He said on Erev RH that his sermons would be on the theme of rn - the text shortcut for Right Now. In this case, meaning there are things we should be changing and addressing right now. Also, the themes for each of the 4 sermons would be a word that started with R and ended with N.

The four sermons: reflection, rebellion, retraction, refraction.

I know, sounds obscure. But, so great!

Reflection is kind of obvious. Rebellion (which I actually missed) was about saying NO when needed.

Retraction was about getting stuck - he told a story about his daughter's seatbelt getting stuck and it won't come out and won't retract. We find ourselves in that situation sometimes, where we can't seem to go forward, but we can't go back either.

But the final one! He started by talking about how the equinox is not really equal light and dark (12 hours of each) - because of the way light refracts, we actually get a few more minutes of light on the equinox (which means equal night). He also mentioned that the true equal light and dark day is called the equilux (equal light).

Anyway, his point was THE LIGHT GETS THERE FIRST. It's physics, but it's also metaphysics: we experience the kindness, the light, even the smallest bit, first and most. That's the takeaway message: do whatever you can to make the world a little better, because every tiny beam of lightness arrives and lands and lightens.