One of the metaphors of our day is that of the corporate ladder to success. If you start on the bottom and play your cards right you should be wealthy by retirement.

The last couple of years have not been kind to that metaphor. It seems that the rungs of the ladder have become further apart and a lot of people are falling through the cracks. There is another ladder from the Torah, Jacobs ladder in Genesis 28:11-19. As usual, there are many different interpretations of what this wild dream might mean. The one I like is that the ladder signifies a bridge between heaven and earth and that the prayers and sacrifices offered by the Jewish people at the Temple were a part of this connection.

By tradition the place of the vision was Mount Moriah, the site of the Temple. Also the ladder may signify the Torah itself which is another connection between heaven and earth. For the more esoteric meanings, the Hebrew word for ladder and the Hebrew word for Sinai have the same numeric value of letters (gematria) thus indicating the connection to the giving of the Torah on Sinai.

Coming back to 21st century, I like to think of the High Holidays as a time when that ladder connection is more intensely felt. Unlike the corporate ladder, however, the heavenly ladder is not in a recession. And the rungs are the same distance apart as they have always been. For this High Holidays season I am suggesting a new approach. Take strength from the High Holidays. Imagine it as a way of reducing the incredibly bad things that are happening around us and of pulling the rungs of life closer together. Seriously consider the significance and meaning of the services. Allow the abstract sounds and beauty of the services to make an ancient invisible reality tangible for us. Heaven knows we need it. High Holidays kicks off with Beit Café, a dinner, and S’lichot on September 4. See you there.

John Zieman