Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

As you prepare for the New Year of 5769 you probably look back what you accomplished this last year. You may realize though that you did not act or think always from the heart. I would like to offer help for your development in this area via the Jewish way: reading and contemplation. The library has a cornucopia of books that can inspire you and act as catalyst of the mind and heart in one or more of three kinds of relationships. As Reimer and Kates put it in Beginning Anew (page 272):

Teshuva demands honest self-scrutiny and reflection.
It is a process between me and my own self.
Tefila embodies my relationship with G-d.
Tzedaka regulates my relationship with my
fellow human beings.

I believe that improvement in any of these three enhances the others. If you manage to improve your self-knowledge and relationship with yourself, it will have positive effect: how you relate to other people and to the Eternal as well. Let me give you three examples from the many offerings we have.

Olitzky’s and Sabbath’s guide titled Preparing your Heart for the High Holy Days has the advantage that you can read and internalize it slowly. For every day, starting with Elul 1–a month before Rosh Hashanah–and ending with Yom Kippur you will find a Biblical or classical quote and two or three paragraphs of thought-provocative text. While reading them you may encounter truths that hit you like revelations about yourself.

Apisdorf’s Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Survival Kit is designed for personal growth. Through gaining a better understanding of the prayers you will appreciate more the hidden meanings and will be able to connect to them personally. The results will also include that you will be more compassionate to the people sitting next to you, because you have more of an inkling of what they are going through: same as you.

No matter how short I have to cut my recommended books for the holidays due to space considerations I cannot omit S. Y. Agnon’s Days of Awe. It is the best and richest source in a single volume I know of that opens the gates of wisdom hiding the treasury of Jewish literature about the High Holidays. Agnon integrated quotes from more than 300 sources into a coherent and eloquent narrative. This overview of relations with G-d can help any open-minded person to fine-tune her/his own. As you can read on page 109:

‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found’ (Isa. 44:6). Said Rabbah bar Abuha: “He may be found” during the ten days between Rosh h-Shanah and Yom Kippur.

One of the best things you can do for yourself and for your various relationships is finding a book in the library that will grab your attention and can lift your spirit.