TO ALL MY JEWISH BROTHERS AND SISTERS

To all my Jewish brothers and sisters, regardless of whatever you consider yourself Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Deconstructionist, atheist, agnostic, secularist, anarchist, liberal, Buddhist, or Satanist, or whenever you consider yourself a Jew or not, or even if you do not know or realize that you are a Jew; to all of you I wish Shana Tova!

Let the Master of the Universe inscribe and seal us all in the Book of Life! Be it His will to protect us from our own confusion, ignorance, arrogance, sheer stupidity, and baseless hatred. Let Him protect the Holy Land and all our brethren who live there from the terrorists and their own corrupt and cowardly government; and let Him instill in all of us the understanding of what being a Jew really means and the pride of being Jews.

Let all of us who live outside of the Holy Land remember that respecting the laws of the country in which you live is a commandment and not an option, and may all our actions always be a credit to His Name. May all of us have the strength of character to prevent us from gossiping, lying, cheating, and trying to destroy somebody else's good name.

Let us all finally unite, not just in times of sorrow, but in times of joy. Let us stop our constant narrow minded judging of each other, put aside all our squabbling over nonsensical matters that always seem so important, and just realize that "we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided". May the meaning of Arba Minim that we use on Succot be our guiding light!

Shana Tova!

All my love,

Barb