44 | SEPTEMBER 2 • 2021 

ROSH HASHANAH

C

ongregation Shaarey 
Zedek’s Rabbi Yonatan 
Dahlen does a lot of 
reading this time of year. He 
speaks to lots of people, bounc-
es ideas off his 
wife, Meredith, and 
spends more time 
in silence. It’s all 
part of his prepa-
ration for the High 
Holidays. 
Rabbis through-
out Metro Detroit 
and beyond are getting ready 
to again inspire their largest 
audiences as they approach the 
pulpit with messages of hope, 
reconciliation and self-refection. 
Getting those messages ready 
to deliver to sanctuaries full 
of congregants — and again 

this year, also those joining on 
Zoom — is a creative endeavor 
each rabbi enters into in a dif-
ferent way. 
For Dahlen, sitting in silence 
gives him the chance to think 
and digest what he’s read and 
heard, and to let his mind 
wander freely. He usually also 
reads lots of mindfulness books 
(Chassidut), to prepare, but this 
year he’s been reading more 
poetry. “It’s been really good for 
my thinking process, just to give 
myself a little bit more freedom 
and a lack of judgement, to be 
able to let my mind go wherever 
it goes,
” he says. 
He’s exploring sermon ideas 
around how Judaism wants us 
to be active, as well as how we 
are commanded to care and 

look out for each other, and 
what that means for the respon-
sibilities we have to ourselves, 
our families and our communi-
ties at large.
“One of the sermon ideas is 
that Judaism isn’t supposed to 
be passive,
” he says. “I think the 
heartbeat of Judaism is ritual. 
Judaism wants us to be active, 
to get our hands on our ritual, 
our tradition, our text and really 
make them our own.
”

MEANINGFUL TO ALL
The challenge in writing High 
Holiday sermons comes from 
trying to speak to as many gen-
erations as possible, says Rabbi 
Jennifer Kaluzny of Temple 
Israel. It’s a larger congregation 
than on a regular Shabbat, and 

she says she wants 
to make sure her 
message comes 
through and is 
meaningful — that 
there’s something 
in her message 
everyone can iden-
tify with and that 
matters to them. 
She does her best thinking 
when she’s moving and in 
nature, and so during this sea-
son walks miles on the trails 
and on the sidewalks in her 
neighborhood. “I love being in 
nature, I love being in the sun-
shine, watching the birds — it 
gives me the opportunity to 
focus,
” she says.
Sometimes Kaluzny listens to 
music, and she frequently talks 

Local rabbis share how they get ready for the High Holidays.
Preparing for the Days of Awe

continued on page 46

Rabbi 
Yonatan 
Dahlen

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rabbi 
Jennifer 
Kaluzny

