The month of Nissan has dawned, the first month of the Hebrew year, the month of Exodus, of harvests, of spring, and eternal renewal. The fears of winter are gone.

(Tishrei is also the Jewish new year - when we celebrate Rosh Hashanah. But Nissan is always the first of months in the Torah. Whoever said there can be only one new beginning each revolution around the sun?  The Jewish calendar reminds us that a new beginning comes with every dawn.)

So at this time of new beginnings, when the world feels fresh and our hope is restored, when despite the overwhelming weight of threats and war, of injustice, divisiveness and our earth’s degradation swirling all about, despite it feeling like so much is falling apart and there is so little we can do, our sacred story bolsters us, speaking of healing, overcoming oppression, starting over, leaving the old behind.

How appropriate, then, that NASA publishes this photo of the turmoil and beauty, the messiness and promise, of new beginnings.

Enjoy. May your Passover preparations lead you too to new beginnings, new awareness, new understandings, and a new openness as wide as the footpath in the midst of the Red Sea.

That is all you need to start.

Shabbat Shalom.