Community Torah Corner, April 25, 2025
Rabbi Eliot Malomet
Highland Park Conservative Temple - Congregation Anshe Emeth
Highland Park, NJ
Parashat Shemini
Highland Park Conservative Temple - Congregation Anshe Emeth
Highland Park, NJ
Parashat Shemini
The Ten Days of Gratitude
On Wednesday evening of this week, we entered the period of National Days of Commemoration for the Jewish people. These 10 days begin with Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and take us through to Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Remembrance and Independence Days. In ordinary years this period is complicated, all the more so this year, as we commemorate these days for the second time, as Israeli hostages are being held in torturous captivity in Gaza. On this Shabbat we will mark 568 days of their captivity. MAY THEY ALL COME HOME NOW!
Some of coined this period of days as Asseret Yemei Hoda'a, the Ten Days of Gratitude, an obvious echo of the Asseret Yemei Teshuva, the Ten Days of Repentance that we observe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. To spark curiosity and conversation, here is a chart that attempts to compare and contrast these two periods in the Jewish year. Feel free to add items to it.
Ten Days of Repentance | Ten Days of Gratitude |
Begin with Rosh Hashanah and end with Yom Kippur. | Begin with Yom Hashoah and end with Yom Ha'atzmut. |
Commemorated by attending shul and joining family meals. | Commemorated by attending ceremonies, memorial events, and communal celebrations. |
Major Themes: God as King and Judge over all humanity, our desire for personal renewal and change. | Major Themes: From national catastrophe to national renaissance. |
Most important moment: the sounding of the Shofar at the end of Yom Kippur. | Most important moment: the sounding of the sirens on both Yom Hashoah and Yom Hazikaron. |
Major stories: God remembers Sarah, the sacrifice of Isaac; Hannah and Samuel, Jonah, and the Avoda service of the Temple. | Major Stories: The Zionist Dream, the rebirth of the Hebrew language, the ingathering of the exiles, and the quest for peace. |
Major spiritual experience: worship, introspection, repentance and forgiveness. | Major spiritual experience: recollection, remembrance, gratitude and celebration. |
Primarily they are days of religious expression, but they are also days with a profound dimension of Jewish peoplehood. | Primarily they are days of Jewish peoplehood, but they also have a profound dimension of religious expression. |
As different as they are, these two periods of Ten Days have a few things in common: they summon us to educate, debate, participate and celebrate.
May this week be a source of meaning for all of us. Shabbat Shalom.
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