MHA-FYOS Dean's Blog

We are now in chodesh Elul – a month dedicated to preparation for the coming yamim noraim – Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. Sephardic communities have the custom to begin saying selichot – prayers of penitence – at the beginning of the month of Elul, and Ashkenazic communities begin saying selichot closer to Rosh HaShana. One of the hallmarks of the selichot prayers is the recitation of the shelosh esre middot , Hashem’s thirteen traits of mercy. Hashem taught these traits to Moshe in the wake of the sin of the Golden Calf and instructed him to recite them when praying to Hashem for mercy. The Torah describes these traits in a verse in parashat Ki Tissa in Sefer Shemot: “Hashem, Hashem. Merciful and gracious G-d, long-suffering and abundant in loving-kindness and truth. Keeping kindness to the thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. And wipe away, He will not wipe away, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third generation and until the fourth...

Each of us has our reason for contributing to the Operational Campaign. For some, it is appreciation for what the school has given us. For some, it is an investment in the future. For some, it is a feeling of responsibility to the community. There are as many reasons as contributors. Each of these reasons is praiseworthy and laudable. Beyond the individual reasons why each person gives, this focused initiative of the entire community over the course of only two weeks itself conveys a message. I want to share two inspirational messages that I am taking away from the Operational Campaign. I will present the first message from what I readily acknowledge is an odd perspective. Like it or not, we can learn a lot about ourselves by studying how our enemies see us. Through their criticism and even venom, our enemies often provide a window into our deepest held beliefs in ways that escape our self-awareness. How did one of the Jewish people’s greatest archenemies view the strength of...