Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
Happy 1st of September to everyone. After sending our precious children off to school, my husband Yedidya Meir wrote the following:
What will we answer when asked about the climactic moment experienced during the forty days that begin on Rosh Chodesh Elul and end on Yom Kippur? Which moment will be the most elevated? When will we feel closest to God? There are certainly those who will choose Kol Nidrei. Others will mention the Neilah prayer. Still others will speak about the shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah. Each person will have their own special moment during these forty days.
But the highest moments during this period could have already occurred (on Sunday of this week, the 2nd of Elul, when the Talmud Torah schools and yeshivot opened) or are happening now (today, the 1st of September, with the opening of the rest of Israel's schools). These first days of the school year are filled with prayers that come from the depths of our hearts. Two and a half million children are returning to the classroom, and millions of parents are praying for them.
True, we don't have a prayer book in our hands, the arks in our synagogues are not open, we are not fasting. Yet if only we would be privileged to pray on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with the same simplicity and purity with which we are praying now. If only we could speak to God with the same heartfelt sincerity with which we are speaking to Him now, as we send our children off to school.
May everyone experience a successful school year and may everyone's prayers be accepted on high.
