This past year has been especially meaningful for our family. We have had the incredible blessing of watching the next generation begin, with the birth of both a granddaughter and a grandson, one to each of our two married sons.

At our grandson’s bris, I had the great honor of serving as the Sandak, holding the baby during the bris. There is a tradition that the Sandak has a special ability to give blessings on that day, and sure enough, immediately after the bris, people began lining up to ask me for brachot.

At first, I found it a little intimidating. Who am I to give someone else a blessing? What am I supposed to say?

But as person after person approached me, something changed.

I began to really think about each person standing in front of me. Who is this person? What might they be struggling with? What are they hoping for? What particular blessing would make a difference in their life right now?

And I found the experience incredibly meaningful.

Rosh Hashanah is naturally a time when we think about the blessings we hope to receive in the coming year. We pray for health, happiness, success, nachat from our families, and so much more.

But standing there at the bris, as I watched the next generation of our family enter the world, I was struck by a different question: Not only, “What blessings do I hope to receive?” but “What blessing does the person in front of me need?” Perhaps that is one of the greatest blessings we can ask for in the coming year: the ability to truly see the people around us.

Each person has their own story, challenges, hopes, and needs. Giving a meaningful bracha required me to stop for a moment and try to understand the person standing in front of me, not what I would want for them, but what they might need most.

And perhaps we can carry that mindset far beyond giving brachot.
Whether with our families, our colleagues, our clients, or anyone else we encounter, we can try to look beyond ourselves and ask: What does this person need from me? How can I help them with the challenge or opportunity that is uniquely theirs?

As we enter Rosh Hashanah, that is my bracha to our entire PSA family: our team, clients, colleagues, partners, and friends.

May we all be blessed with health, happiness, success, and nachat in the year ahead. But may we also be blessed with the sensitivity to truly see the people around us, to recognize each person’s unique needs, and with the ability and opportunity to help meet those needs.

Shana Tova U’Metuka

Fred Kahn, CEO