Adrienne Aguirre Deshaies

On Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, Jews are charged with the mitzvah of living in a sukkah, a makeshift booth composed of at least three walls and covered by a roof of branches, for seven days.

In the Jewish tradition, this is our season for Turning. Rosh Hashanah falls on Monday the 26th and Yom Kippur on October 5th, with the ten days of Atonement or At-One-Ment in between where we take an accounting of the soul and ask forgiveness.

“You shall not murder. What does this mean?"

"Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite."

"Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper?"

Hello, Creator! With a renewed perception of vigor, I sense the Divine Presence today.

Life is not a straight line.
The ups and downs don’t feel sublime.
When the trials and tribulations don’t seem good
They bring opportunities to let go of “should.”

“I’m not surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair. We are at such a low moment in the history of the country that we have to be unflinching in our attempt to recognize levels of corruption... and at the same time straighten our backs up and be willing to bear witness to integrity, honesty, and decency.”

In our lives, in our relationships, when something has been broken, when walls have come tumbling down, when the earthquake has shaken all that we thought we knew and when hurricanes have blown down the trees, and the roofs, and the antennae of our lives, we are always tempted to just try to get back what we’ve lost.