08/11/2026
Join us for the High Holy Days
SPEAK THE WORLD INTO BEING
בָּרוּךְ שֶׁאָמַר וְהָיָה הָעוֹלָם
Judaism offers us a unique lens when it comes to words.
Whether it is the first Genesis story, from which we learn that the world came into being through primordial speech, or Deuteronomy, where we learn that Torah is not in the heavens, but, rather, is as close to us as our own lips, words hold a certain power within our tradition. So much so that the word for “word” and “thing” in Hebrew are one and the same:דָּבָר
As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it, “words create worlds.”’
Which means that what we say, the stories we tell, and the language through which we communicate them have the power to shape reality.
In a time where words–whether they be the ancient words of Torah or the contemporary words of our governmental and institutional leaders–are being used to not only to justify, but manifest extreme violence, what duty do we hold to tell a different story? What duty do we have, through our words, to create a new world? What duty do we have to write a new Torah?
Each morning, our prayer book invites us to recite:
בָּרוּךְ שֶׁאָמַר וְהָיָה הָעוֹלָם
“Blessed is that which spoke the world into being.”
This High Holy Days season–a season of world creation and world-building–may we harness the power of speech and story for the good, to figuratively speak into being the world that we, the people, need and deserve.
Find more information about the High Holy Days Schedule and ticketing on our website.
https://www.orshalomsf.org/hhd-2026/
*ASL Interpretation will be made available for High Holidays services upon request. Requests must be submitted by August 31st.
**Art by Lizzie Sivitz
