It has been over a week since the beginning of the year 5786, and it’s already time for another.

I am not going to critique yesterday’s Yom Kippur services, except to say that I left the Kol Nidrei evening service and the morning Yom Kippur services with very different feelings.

I do want to make two important comments about yesterday. First, I appreciated more than before the enormous size of the tent that covers the Adas parking lot during the high holidays. I believe (don’t hold me to it) that almost 2000 people can sit in the tent. Of course, the crowd overflows during part of the services (and there are two other services going on inside the building).

Second, what is a synagogue service without old people? From my earliest memories,  there have always been very old, bent-over men and women at synagogue services, devout, often keeping to themselves, but present. It is still the case. They are still there. But something has definitely changed. These people are now all my contemporaries. Sure, there are some that are a few years older, but not of another generation. I have said this before. Services are now filled with people that I have known for 40 years, who were (say, before the Covid pandemic) still energetic, active human beings, but who now seem to have taken on new roles, the roles of aged men and women.

Of course, I understand that these others must look at me the same way. I know that when my age comes up in a conversation, I expect this response: “What???? 82???? I would have guessed 28! You sure you aren’t dyslexic?”

Instead, I find that people simply start talking to me louder or slower.

I will admit that this might be the proper response, as  sometimes I wonder if my hearing is beginning to fail a bit. This generally happens when I am with a number of people, and someone says something that I don’t quite grasp, but everyone else seems to hear it perfectly. Of course, all the other people seem to be wearing hearing aids. I may be the only person I know who is 82 and hasn’t been fitted for a hearing aid at Costco.

But then there was my old friend/client H_____, who had lost most of his hearing by the time he was in his early 70s. He had to ask you to repeat for him anything that was said, because he couldn’t understand it unless, in fact, someone did speak to him loudly and slowly.

He was, of all things, a psychiatrist, and still practicing. This seemed to me to be impossible, and I commiserated with him, showing that I knew how difficult it must be. “Difficult?”, he said, putting his hand on my shoulder, “It’s a blessing.”

Last night, we had 14 people for Yom Kippur break-fast and a triple birthday celebration for son-in-law Josh, cousin Alison, and (two weeks early, but we couldn’t leave him out) grandson Izzy. The smartest thing we did? Paper and plastic everything. OK, maybe not the smartest.  But definitely the most convenient.

Back to the real world now, I guess. Government shutdown. Escalating inflation, especially with healthcare. All Democratic programs being put on hold. Democratic cities being invaded by federal troops. ICE run wild, terrorizing millions with bodysnatching and long term secret incarceration. Tampering with voting rights. Environmental neglect. Increasing unemployment. Federal layoffs, suspensions, furlough, and firings. All out war against non-military cartels, proposed Trump takeover of the Gaza Strip. Republicans refusing to talk to Democrats. And now FEMA withholding emergency funding.

Welcome to Fiscal Year 2026.