Life is truly lived in the stages, and pauses, taken along the way not in those achieved destinations.  Meaning is found in the steps discovered along the journey.  Life is in some very important ways about the rest stops. 

There are times in our lives when we must be like Noah and relinquish control.  Often, we fight to regain control as if we are about to crash against a rocky coast.  Instead, we must trust in God and have faith.  We are carried forward by the waves.  However much we plan we are carried forward by life.

Three years later we need to be stronger than blaming our adversaries for all our miseries.  We need to look back at what went wrong.  We need to look within at where we erred and what we continue to do wrong.  Admitting failure does not make us weaker.  It makes us stronger. 

Mistakes are a given.  Assigning blame, shirking responsibility need not be.  We should not ask ourselves, who can I blame but instead what did I do wrong, how can I make amends?

Our first priority is to rejoice.  Judaism commands us to celebrate.  It insists that we cannot rejoice alone.  We are uplifted by our community.  Our hearts rejoice in the swirl of people dancing around us.  A wedding can only become a simcha with others. 

How do you celebrate sukkot in the pouring rain? The Talmud answers, “Go inside!” It is a joy to be Jewish!