Paul is Prizmah’s founding Chief Executive Officer. Learn more about Paul here.

Shana Tova from Prizmah: A Message from the CEO

Whether in person, via zoom, or some hybrid of both, Jewish day schools and yeshivas have, over the last month or so, started the new semester. We experienced some familiar “first day” rituals—new backpacks, anxious parents—and we also tried out new routines for the first time—temperature checks and socially distanced classrooms. It was a first day like none before.

The machzor reminds us that Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of Creation.  

זה היום תחילת מעשיך זכרון ליום ראשון

“This day is the beginning of your works, a commemoration of the first day.”

As we begin our year and we take on both new and familiar ma’asim/works (or actions), we have all the other previous beginnings in our memory.  

We reached this first day due to the incredibly hard work of so many. From IT specialists to security to maintenance to faculty and administrators, school staff literally reimagined and created (or recreated) our schools to thrive in a whole new reality. For all involved in getting schools ready, the work seemed miraculous. The “beginning of your works,” which we see in the smiling and focused faces of children on countless school videos, has already made a deep impression. 

And in those videos, on those screens, we sense that these “beginnings” are actually evocative and familiar, not so different after all from previous years.  Rich teacher-student interactions, the joy of children interacting with their fellow students, the power of the larger school community pulling together—these are all core elements of a Jewish day school education. Our present is so very different from our past, and yet there is a comfort in recognizing well-established rituals and milestones. The paradigmatic “first day” is very much present.

Rosh Hashanah this year also feels very different. I suspect I am not alone in feeling somewhat bereft without our traditional large family meals and regular tefilot filled with song. We are missing the usual ma’asim that launch these High Holy Days.  

The liturgy, in connecting the new year to Creation, opens up space for us to remember and appreciate from whence we came and why we are here. Today is the beginning of our works, and yet it is also a commemoration of the first day that, by definition, cannot be repeated.  Once created, the world exists and cannot actually be recreated. The story of the flood as a one time “do-over” makes that message clear. We may long for Eden, but we live outside the Garden, and each year we are compelled to begin anew nonetheless.

The year ahead may be harder than we even currently anticipate and will surely be filled with uncertainty. Some schools are already encountering their first positive cases, and we send out our deepest prayers for strength and resilience, as well as refuah shleimah to those who are unwell. What brings me hope—and what I hope will inspire you as well—is the power of starting these first days together and drawing from our communal memory.  The past serves as an inspiration and motivation as we take the first steps in our new ma’asim/actions for the year to come. This is the day—zeh hayom—where we start our work anew, overcome the unknowns and obstacles ahead, inspired by the past as we face new realities, together.  

Shana tova and best wishes for a happy, healthy, and learning-filled year,
Paul Bernstein
CEO