There is a beautiful teaching about the meaning of what a niggun is. My favorite translation for niggun is a wordless melody in search of its own unattainable end. A melody that flows on forever. Now within this infinite melody are notes. I like to think of each one of us as a note. One note turns to the one before it, bows and says thank you for your note and making it possible for me to sing my note. Then this note turns to the next note, who will come after it and bows to that note, passing the song along. I have always loved this metaphor. It reminds me that all of us, independent notes are also dependent, inextricably linked to the next note. And it only works when we are all singing our song.

This is the essence of our Holidays together. Each one of us a link in the great chain of being. I am because you are.