Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once wrote, “To be a Jew is to be an agent of hope.” My son seemed to grasp this instinctively. When he asked me to join him on the bimah, I knew this moment was about more than a single blessing. His shining face steadied me, reminding me that sometimes the blessing flows from the child to the parent. When my son asked me to bless the community, I said yes — to him, to my congregation, and to my own better self. In that moment, I understood that the blessing had flowed both ways: from me to the congregation, and from him to me.