When people hear that Hanna and I are going to Hawaii for the High Holydays, they chuckle with a shade of envy. “Boy, Rabbi, you fell into a great gig again" (we had a gig on the Big Island for three years).But when we had a gig in Juneau for two years, we got a different reaction. “Juneau? Why Juneau? Are you a masochist?”Nope, neither a hedonist nor a masochist. Just a retired rabbi and spouse, looking to find Jews in the newer states of the union with whom to celebrate the 5,770th birthday of the world . And the experience, no matter the weather, has been remarkably the same.Rosh Hashana is considered by our people to be the birthday of the world. Our logical side certainly agrees that this planet and the cosmos are much older than that, So 5770 stands for whatever the unknown beginning was.A midrash asks “So, was the first day of creation Rosh Hashana?” It seems like the simplest of questions. And it answers “No, the 6th day was Rosh Hashana,” And that confusing answer comes to teach us that the world didn’t really start until the creation of human beings. And that was on day six”So God didn’t just want a world. He wanted it with us, to care for it, nurture it, learn from it, and perfect ourselves. It’s OUR birthday—a time, like most birthdays to figure out what we could be and should be.Let’s celebrate with that in mind. But don’t try to blow out the candles without all the rest of us helping you.Hanna and I are looking forward to meeting many of you in the coming days.Sincerely,Rabbi Mark Shapiro