During the Yamim Noraim we take stock of the year that has just passed.  We revisit our roots, we take the courage to face the adversities of life, upright like the trunk of a tree, we raise our arms and our faces to the sky, as if they were branches in the wind, and we look forward to a better year, one in which we can harvest the fruits of our labors.

    During the High Holidays, we are like trees.

    During these Yamim Noraim we would like to learn from the Tamar of the judge Deborah, from the Eshel of Abraham Avinu, from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, from the tree of Gopher wood with which Noah built his ark, from the Kikaion of Jonah, from the bush of Moses which burned and did not turn to ashes, and from the Tree of Life.

    On this sacred night for everyone, I wish to speak to you about the Kikaion in the book of Jonah, that we read tomorrow afternoon.

    G-d sends Jonah to the city of Nineveh with the intent of convincing its inhabitants to repent for their misdeeds.  Jonah tries to hide from G-d time and again, but finally he feels obliged to abide by the task assigned to him.  To his own surprise, the people of Nineveh repent for their transgressions and G-d forgives them.  Jonah is not in agreement with this divine clemency, he flees, and he becomes angered to the point of asking for his own death.

    Finally, Jonah sets up camp outside of the fringes of the city, alone, and under a sukah.  The sun torments Jonah, and so G-d in his benevolence and through his miracles makes an enormous tree grow, a Kikaion, so that Jonah is shaded from the sun.  Jonah is thankful for the shade shielding him from the heat of the sun, having been relived of the excessive brightness as well as being protected from sunburns.

    However, before dawn the next day, G-d sends a worm that eats away at the Kikaion.  The tree dries and dies.  Jonah wakes up and again suffers from the suffocating heat that pesters him as before.  He feels sick and again petitions G-d that he let him die.  G-d becomes enraged and says to Jonah:  “You felt compassion for the Kikakion, and yet you did not work to create it nor did you help it grow for it came to being overnight, and suddenly ceased to exist for you” (Jonah, 4:10).  Jonah is left speechless.  The prophet understands that what miraculously came to being, without the benefits of his efforts or work, could also miraculously disappear.

   Yom Kippur, Kol Nidrei… a sacred moment, of introspection, the day of forgiveness.  All of these concepts are true, but clearly this period has converted itself into a time of community, a time for the whole Jewish people to come together.  Here, today, we are also together.

    Some of us have known each other for many years, almost 20, since this congregation was founded, with the intention of bringing together all of the components to provide a Judaic option in Costa Rica.  On this night of Kol Nidrei, assuredly, in your imagination, remembrances come to mind of other nights such as this one, in other places, with fewer people, yet they are times that were enriched with many dreams.

    Others began to seek out your assembly and gather in community over the years, for different objectives and searching out for different reasons.  Many did not even have the opportunity to experience the previous building, and yet others were the artisans that brought to life this beautiful synagogue that we enjoy today.

    Some are relative newcomers, with other degrees of dedication and conviction to the community.  Certainly, today, there are people who have just recently incorporated into the community, or even, maybe today is the first time they have visited.

    Regardless, being here today is like seeing the Kikaion that Jonah saw.  B’nei Israel is like a tree that has grown, but in contrast to that tree, it has been cultivated through enormous work and dedication by many people, who fought arm in arm for the community and on behalf of the continuity of the Jewish tradition in the modern world.

    B’nei Israel is a source of shade and fresh air for us, for our families and for our children.  It is a place where we find our friends, where we reencounter our roots, where we learn how to live like Jews in the XXI century, and at the same time we respect and love our traditions that have survived through the millennia.

    Without a doubt, like that Kikaion, our congregation can be better and grow: have more activities, provide us space where we will feel more comfortable, open up ourselves and her doors to actually become our second home, as the community, the kehilah, as it has always been in our recent history as a people.

    Jonah leaned with his own body the lesson of the Kikaion: only when we take care of it, and when we water it can we ensure that it continues to grow strong and sturdy.  Otherwise, just as it has grown with the great care, it can also crumble and die without it.

    On this Yom Kippur, I invite you all, members and friends of B’nei Israel, to come together and help with the care taking of our Kikaion, that is the congregation.  Together we can make it better, and continue building the dream of the community that provides shelter to everyone beneath its shade.  It is a community that gives us a hand when we are in need, and it is a community in which we can provide our help to others that need it.  It is a community that gives us the possibility to live completely as Jews, proud to belong to this wonderful people, that today fasts and repents, thinking about how we are going to be better in this year that is just beginning.

    Jonah was so great that he could convince a big city to change its course.  However, he failed in the simplest task of appreciating and taking care of a tree.  Possibly his failure was due to the fact that he was alone, completely alone.  We have the blessing to be together.  Let us know how to appreciate and make the most of this enormous advantage that we share with this community and congregation.