Preparing for Rosh Hashanah

Every year when Rosh Hashanah gets close I panic a bit feeling like I'm not ready.

It's appropriate then that this year I am reading This Is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared by Alan Lew. I highly highly recommend it. It discusses the progression from Tisha B'av into Rosh Hashanah and then into a kind of rebuilding at Sukkot (again, after the destruction at Tisha B'Av). I'm not going into a lot more detail right now. But I heard Lew speak in Portland two years ago when he was on a book tour and he really helped me make sense of this season as part of a long progression and not just a 2 day holiday thrown into the first month of the school year. I've been taking it much deeper than that but, again, don't want to go into that right now.

Today I did something else to prepare too. As fearful as I was about moving to this part of the country, I've always looked forward to the fact that in the NY/NJ area I would have much more opportunities for Torah learning. Sadly, I haven't actually been to any classes at all except a single Shabbos shiur that became more of a chat. I think that Teaneck, which is only 10 minutes away, might ultimately be promising for me. But today I went into Manhattan to Yeshiva University. I found out about the weekly classes there through a friend of mine who used to live in Portland and who lives very close to both the university and the GW bridge. And the truth is I would have been too shy to trek out to it if not for her. Honestly, I'm not sure if the classes themselves were so spectacular that they would be worth such a trek, but for today it was really good that I went and I did learn some things, namely about the history and purpose of Unesaneh Tokef. (Again, I won't go into it here right now unless I'm asked. I might put more details in the comments section, if I am asked.)

It didn't hurt to be able to see an old friend again either. Nice not to have to figure out "the rules" of the relationship. I already know them with her.

The tricky part was getting there. And for better or worse, I'm so proud of how I solved this that it almost overshadows the actual learning. No buses go from our area that early in the morning, so U. gave me a ride to the GW bridge and I WALKED ACROSS. In practice, it wasn't such a big deal. It's a little less than a mile across and I walked it (fast) in almost exactly 25 minutes. I told my dad once that it wasn't possible to bike across it, but I was quite wrong about it. Lots of bikes crossed, leaving me wistful for my own bike which badly needs to be reassembled after the movers messed with it. The bridge even has this sort of gutters in the stairs up to it on which you can roll the bike rather than carry the full weight yourself. It was a gorgeous morning with the sun shining and the water looking blue and beautiful. I felt so accomplished doing it.

It actually quite reminded me of walking across the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland. Just way longer, way louder, and way more famous.

In any case, to summarize. I walked from New Jersey to New York today to learn Torah. Go me!