Rabbi Lauren Henderson’s Rosh Hashanah Message for 2026

Scripture compares human beings to a broken shard, withering grass, a shriveled flower, a passing shadow, a fading cloud, a fleeting breeze, scattered dust, a vanishing dream.

And You – You are the Sovereign, Living God, ever-present. 

from the Unetaneh Tokef prayer

These images, gathered up from the Hebrew Bible, offer us a glimpse of our mortality, in stark contrast to the ways we often prefer to see ourselves as strong, capable, competent, and powerful. But sitting with one of these ephemeral images, we begin to see the true nature of our human reality: temporary, vulnerable, passing.

Yet rather than leaving us feeling hopeless, it’s the direct encounter with this capital-T truth of our limited human existence that ultimately empowers us to live lives of greater depth and meaning. In his profound book, “Meditations for Mortals,” Oliver Burkeman writes about the power of giving up the illusion that someday we’ll have everything all figured out in our lives and finally figure out how to get it all done.

He writes, “It’s equivalent to that moment when, caught in a rainstorm without an umbrella, you finally abandon your futile efforts to stay dry, and accept getting soaked to the skin. Very well, then; this is how things are. Once you see it’s just unavoidably the case that you’ll only ever get to do a fraction of the things that in an ideal world you might like to do, anxiety subsides, and a new willingness arises to get stuck in to what you actually can do.”

The High Holy Days offer us a chance to step back from our constant doing and deeply ingrained habits to be able to ask the deepest questions: Why am I here? What do I want to do with my limited time? What does it mean to live well amidst a climate of fear and uncertainty? How can I gain the courage to look directly at my own failings? What can I hold fast to when nothing seems stable? What can Jewish wisdom offer me to help me meet this moment with greater clarity, strength, and hope? Rather than offering answers to these questions, just having the space to contemplate them might be the most valuable.

L’shanah tovah – to a good and sweet year ahead for all of us.

Rabbi Lauren Henderson is the Rabbi for Congregation Or Hadash.