As I write this I am basking in the afterglow of our deeply moving High Holiday observances. Is it just me or is our congregational experience during these days truly exceptional? I feel so privileged to be the rabbi in such an amazing community. We are blessed with a community filled with incredible people, but the real blessing is that the community has created a fabric where we experience and benefit from so many of our members' gifts. Building community means, in part, expanding the circle of those who share themselves and their talents with us. In this regard, we can take special joy in the participation of our high school students--24 of them participated in the services and there were even more waiting for the opportunity next year. As our numbers have grown, we have a hard time meeting the requests of all those who wish to participate. This, too, is a great blessing.

As you read this, my six-month sabbatical has officially begun. I am deeply grateful to the congregation for making this sabbatical possible. The board and I have developed a plan so that everything will be covered in my absence. In addition to my gratitude to the congregation, I am also enormously thankful to our dedicated Micah staff: Rabbi Manewith, Susie Blumenthal, Debra Beland, Meryl Weiner and Teddy Klaus, each of whom in their own way help make this sabbatical possible.

Many of you have asked me how I will be spending my time. I have accepted the position of visiting scholar at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. In return for a wonderful office and study space in their library, I have minimal but interesting responsibilities. The small office gives me a quiet place in a beautiful setting to work on a couple of writing projects and do my own studying and reading.

My initial reading list includes: The Looming Tower: Al- Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright; Everyman, by Philip Roth; A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever, by Josh Karp (a long time Chicago friend); The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, by Erik Larson, and The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room, by Paul Auster. This initial list also includes two old classics: The Professor and the Fossil: The confusions, prejudices, and intellectual distortions in Arnold J. Toynbee's "A Study of History", by Maurice Samuel, and The Ordeal of Civility: Freud, Marx, Levi-Strauss, and the Jewish Struggle with Modernity, by John Murray Cuddihy.

I am also looking forward to spending time with my family as well as in Israel. The six months promise to be very full, but refreshing. Temple Micah is always in my mind when I am away, so I am also looking forward to thinking about our congregation with the advantage of perspective and some objectivity that a sabbatical provides. I remember returning from my last sabbatical in May of 2000 brimming with ideas and experiments. Who knows now what will percolate while I am away?

November brings with it Thanksgiving. From our home to yours, best wishes for a joyous day of thanks for all of the blessings of our lives.