Sending love to all of you as we head into another holiday.

Shavuos/Shavuot is the celebration of the time in our history when Gd gave the Old Testament to the Jewish people.

How did it come to be that we were chosen out of all the peoples in the world, to be trusted with this incredible set of rules, guidelines and legacy?

The story goes that Gd offered it to all the other nations of the world, but they each turned it down for different reasons. Some made their livelihood by plundering and taking the spoils of the conquered, and so they didn’t want the morality of the Torah. Others had dietary practices that were contrary to the rules the Old Testament laid out, so they didn’t want to give up eating their delicacies. And so it went on, until Gd turned to the Jews and we famously said, “We will do and we will listen.”

Throughout history, it’s never been easy to be a Jew, but we have persevered, because that’s what we do best. We do hard things and keep going.

You’ve all learned that the struggle to build your family can also be a soul-sucking, life changing experience in its own right, shaking your core from everything you once believed that was true. You thought you’d be able to have the family you wanted, when you wanted it and the exact number of children planned years in advance. But it hasn’t happened the way you hoped either.

But we know how to do hard things. It’s in our DNA. It’s in our history. It’s in our blood.

And you can do hard things too.

Hold that idea close as you sit around the table, wondering why you’re still aching for a child surrounded by a sea of babies.

You can do this. We can do this.

Chag sameach.