While in Washington, DC, for a family gathering, two unrelated events collided and provided me with some interesting reflections about how Judaism affirms life. First, I reread most of a novel by the Czech author, Milan Kundera. Then I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. While I have contributed to the museum in the past, this was my first time visiting.

It's begun. Every year around this time, a sort of dread and anxiety washes over me. In the beginning, it would paralyze me. Now I observe it with alternating states of dispassion and curiosity as it cycles around again. If I had to name it, I'd call it the pre-high holiday terrors. Most rabbis I know experience it to some degree, because the stakes are so high.

 This Shabbat marks the start of Rosh Hodesh Elul, the beginning of the Hebrew month Elul. There are several ways that this is significant. First, the start of a new month in general is considered a small holiday; treating it as such really connects us to Jewish time and our national calendar.

Laura and I were recently driving west on Beaverton Hillsdale Highway when we saw it. The old Pier One had relocated, and in its place was a Halloween store. It seemed so incongruous. The temperature was in the nineties and summer seemed reluctant to go. Or maybe I'm the one who is reluctant to let summer go. Regardless, in just a couple of months, kids will be trick or treating.

Tisha B'Av means the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. On that day, we commemorate and remember the destruction of the first and second Temples. Over the centuries, people hostile to the Jews maliciously chose that day to inflict further tragedies upon us. For example, the tradition records that we were expelled from Spain on the 9th of Av in 1492.