Rosh Hashanah Message: Rabbi Rachael Klein Miller

Clearing the Way for More Prayer

This past week the Old City saw a MAJOR change. I’m not talking about riots, prayer battles, or a new hummus place; rather, the holiest site, in the holiest city in the world, just underwent a dramatic cleaning. This is no ordinary cleaning, rather; they swept and picked up thousands, upon thousands of letters to G-d. These letters were pulled and swept away from the Western Wall (the Kotel) because Rosh Hashanah is just around the corner.

The prayers are cleared twice a year, once before Rosh Hashanah and once before Passover. Thousands of slips of paper are then buried at Mount of Olives. New notes and prayers will soon fill the momentarily empty walls of the Kotel.

During this time of year, we too should take a moment to do a sweep of sorts, just as the Kotel has undergone its sweep. We need to clear away things that were on our minds this past year, so as to clean out some space for the coming year. May we ask G-d new questions, and may we find G-d in new ways. Let these final moments leading up to Rosh Hashanah and into the Days of Awe be days of spiritual and mental cleansing, and may we be blessed to enter this new year reaching for something higher.

Rabbi Rachael is a rabbi at Temple Emanu-El of Sandy Springs.