By Toviah Botwinik

While Simchat Torah is just around the corner, we go back to Shemot (Exodus):

After destroying the first set of tablets, Moshe goes back up Har (Mt.) Sinai and asks G-d to make another set of tablets, and to make a promise that they will be just for the Jewish people, and that G-d's presence (shechina) will reside exclusively with the Jewish people. Moshe also asks to see G-d, who answers that Moshe will only be able to see G-d's back, not G-d's face. G-d also says that the Caananites will be sent away from the land, and G-d asks that the Jewish people do not practice idolatry.

Also in this section is the law against mixing meat and milk (or literally: calf in its mother's milk) and the mitzvot (commandments) outlining the Shalosh Regalim (three harvest festivals,) which includes Sukkot!

I want to write about the cycles in Judaism and in our lives. We have just completed the Jewish Year, celebrating Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. This coming week we complete the reading of the Torah and celebrate Simchat Torah, and begin anew. In our secular lives, those of us who are Americans are nervously anticipating the coming election, and remembering the election cycle which is about to end and begin again.

I feel like we, as Jews, have been given an amazing opportunity and structure with which we can connect with our ancestors and with the rich culture and texts that have accumulated these past few thousand years. I wish I could say the same thing about the United States- it seems that every election cycle, instead of reflecting on the entirety of colonial history and moving forward and making the world a better place for those who suffer, somehow the country moves backwards into populism and sensationalism.

In the next few weeks we should reflect on how we have grown over the last year and how the movement, Israel, and our relationships

have changed in the last eight years. I think this will allow us to look forward to the positive change we can bring to our communities in the months and years to come.