September 2, 2010

Daily Reflections for Elul

Elul 24 (Sept 2): Repentance

Great is repentance, for it brings healing to the world…
Great is repentance, for it brings redemption to the world. [Talmud, Yoma 86a]

Elul is a month of Divine grace, because it is taught that in this month, Moses began his last 40 days on the mountain (his 3rd round!), praying for God’s compassion and forgiveness after our idolatry with the Golden Calf. As God opened to Moses’ pleas and contrition, so may these days be ones of Divine mercy and forgiveness for us as well. Elul is a month when the doors, the gates that keep us from changing, are open. Just as we prepare for so many activities in our lives, practicing to get better at the things that are important to us, so too, is this month an opportunity for each of us to practice, to prepare our hearts and souls for the coming Days of Awe—Moments of Transformation.

Each day of Elul, you will find here a Reflection or quote, followed by a question or two for your reflection. We hope that you find it meaningful to take a few minutes each day to begin to prepare the soil of your heart, to plant the seeds of change and growth that will lead to a deeper experience of the unique days of our people ahead.

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Elul 24 (Sept 2): Repentance

Great is repentance, for it brings healing to the world…
Great is repentance, for it brings redemption to the world. [Talmud, Yoma 86a]

For reflection:

How can your t’shuvah influence others? In what ways and to whom does it bring healing?

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Elul 23 (Sept 1): Atonement

"Yom Kippur atones only for transgressions between human beings and God. For transgressions between one individual and another, atonement is achieved only by reconciling with the person who has been offended." [Mishnah Yoma 8:9]

For reflection:

In preparation for Yom Kippur, from who are you going to ask forgiveness? To whom are you ready to grant it?

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Elul 22 (Aug 31): Self-Determination

"God does not predetermine whether a person shall be righteous or wicked; that God leaves to us.” [Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei 3]

For reflection:

We have to take responsibility for our actions, for our choices…for our lives. How will you choose today?

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Elul 21 (Aug 30) : Our Imperfections

The sounds of the shofar are odd, squeaky, uneven. They are echoes of an ancient world. We’ve made technological advances to improve virtually every area of human life. Yet we still use shofaraot made as they always have been, from sheep or goat horns, minimally cleaned up, hollowed out, with a roughly cut mouthpiece.

Why hasn’t someone made a better shofar? One that would tekiah with a pure and clear blast like a trumpet. That would sh’varim to break your heart like a blues saxophone. That would t’ruah, vibrating like, well, like a vibraphone. Why not a better shofar? We could do it. The bleating, blasting, burping shofar gives a most haunting sound. It’s not pretty, no. But it stirs us, perhaps because it is imperfect, as are we. [Rabbi Laura Metzger]

For reflection:

We are all uneven, odd, imperfect—striving, especially now, to transmit, as best as we are able, the cleanest, purest sounds of Creation. How can this image of the shofar help you to forgive someone who has wronged you? How can it help you be more compassionate toward yourself?

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Elul 20 (Aug 29): Turning To Ourselves

“Return, O Israel, to Adonai your God.” (Hosea 14:2). With a creative spin on the Hebrew words of the verse from Hosea, which is read as the Haftarah for Shabbat Shuva (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), Rabbi Yisrael, the Maggid of Kuzhnitz, explained this verse as follows: ‘Return, O Israel, until Adonai becomes your God—that is, bring back the godliness that is actually part of you.’ Returning to God is a vague concept. Returning to the point that you actually internalize God’s presence into the very fiber of your being is of a different degree and level. Rabbi Yisrael advises his listeners to truly return, to God, and to their own internal divinity. [Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins]

For reflection:

Perhaps what it means to be created in God’s image is to understand that God is a part of each of us—returning to the divine in yourself will enable you to see the divinity in every being, no matter how tarnished or hidden. When you look in the mirror, can you see that divine image? How easy or hard is that to see?

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Elul 19 (Aug 28): Daily Remembrances

"Days are scrolls: write on them what you want to be remembered." [Bachya ibn Pakuda, 11th C.]

For reflection:

What do you want to write today, that you want to remember? That you want others to remember about you?

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Elul 18 (Aug 27): The Strength of Scars

"Every human being is tied to God by a rope. If the rope breaks, and is later fixed with a knot, that individual is connected ever closer to God than if there never were a break in the rope.  Thus, errors, mistakes and failures have the potential of drawing us even closer to God."  [Hasidic teaching]

For reflection:

Just because you may have done wrong before, those mistakes can serve to make your t’shuvah, your repentance, that much stronger and lasting.  Learning from your mistakes, repairing the errors, erases the scars—that invites God into our lives.  Where do you remember a mistake, an error, a failure, that ultimately brought you strength?  

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Elul 17 (Aug 26): Nightly T’shuvah

Be among those people who take stock of themselves each night before going to sleep. Give a nightly account of your sins and repent for them. Know that even a thought of repentance will suffice for t’shuvah was one of the seven things that preceded the creation of the world. It is beyond time. Therefore a single thought of t’shuvah can ‘sweeten’ all of your misdeeds. [Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl]

For reflection:

The time is now. Today. Every day. You don’t have to wait for ‘one day’ to come. What single, sweet thought of t’shuvah will you grant yourself and others today?

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Elul 16 (Aug 25): Perspective

If you have done your neighbor a little wrong, let it be a great wrong in your eyes, and go and rectify it.

If you have done your neighbor much good, let it be little in your eyes.

If your neighbor has done you a little good, let it be great in your eyes.

If your neighbor has done you a great wrong, let it be little in your eyes. [Avot d’Rabbi Natan]

For reflection:

Allow the beauty of this Shabbat to inspire you to see the best in others; it opens your eyes to see yourself more clearly. What great wrong done to you can you grant some release? For what great wrong that have you done would you like to be seen as ‘little’ by the other party, that they will openly accept your requests for forgiveness?

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Elul 15 (Aug 24): Careful Speech

“O God, help me avoid every abuse of speech. Let no untrue word escape my lips. I pray that I may never speak badly of others, or speak empty words of flattery. Help me stay away from profanity. Teach me, dear God, when to keep silent and when to speak; and when I speak, O God, save me from using Your wonderful gift of speech to humiliate or hurt others.” [Reb Nachman of Bratzlav, Likutei Mohoran 1:63]

For reflection:

There is tremendous power in our words; they hang in the air long after we have uttered them, like a cloud, which can either bring comforting shade or terrible storm. Today, consider the kind of clouds that you want to create around you through your speech and through your silence.

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Elul 14 (Aug 23): Your Sins and Theirs

"Forgive your neighbors [their] transgressions, and then when you pray, your sins will be forgiven." [Ben Sira 28:2]

For reflection:

When you open your heart to others, you dissolve the brokenness around you, allowing others to see you in a new light, opening their hearts to you. Where can you be open to healing the hurts of others, so that you can find healing in your own heart?

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Elul 13 (Aug 22): The Voice Of The Shofar
"
The voice of the shofar symbolizes the inner voice of Torah embedded in every Jewish soul." [Rabbi Joseph Stern (interpreting the Sfat Emet)]

For reflection:

Listen to your inner voice—the voice of our tradition that cries ‘wake up!’, the one that calls you in kindness to repentance and forgiveness. What can you hear, in the deepest recesses of your heart?

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Elul 12 (Aug 21): Great Is Repentance

"Rabbi Meir used to say, 'Great is repentance, for on account of one true penitent, the entire world is pardoned.'" [Talmud Yoma 86b]

For reflection:

Consider the ramifications of your repentance, of the effect on the person to whom you are making amends. Your repentance may break open their heart, triggering them to reach out for forgiveness from someone they have wronged….can you see the chain reaction that you can create with your actions? How different can you imagine our world to be?

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Elul 11 (Aug 20): Seeking God’s Face

“If My people, who are called by My name humble themselves, pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [II Chronicles 7:14]

For reflection:

How do you seek God’s face? Can that experience open your heart, enabling you to sense forgiveness and healing?

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Elul 10 (Aug 19): Contrition

"We are not so arrogant as to say before you, 'We are righteous and have not sinned.' Surely, we have sinned." [Yom Kippur Liturgy]

For reflection:

How difficult is it for you to overcome the natural, understandable resistance to finding fault in yourself? Where in your life might you take more responsibility?

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Elul 9 (Aug 18): Holding On To Snakes
"One who confesses in words and has not in his heart resolved to forsake sin is like one who immerses in a mikveh [ritual bath] and keeps holding a reptile. Unless you cast it away, the immersion is useless. " [Maimonides, Hilchot Teshuvah]

For reflection:

Like Eve, the snake distracts us, keeping us from our purest and best self. As you continue on this journey of self-reflection and prepare to welcome Shabbat, is there any aspect of a sin, habit, or grudge that you want to let go, to which some part of you is still clinging?

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Elul 8 (Aug 17): Eternal Relationships

"If a person sinned against another and the latter died before pardon was sought, the sinner should bring a minyan (quorum), station them at the grave of the diseased, and in their presence make the declaration: “I sinned against Adonai, God of Israel, and against this individual, having committed such-and-so a wrong against him.” If the sinner owed the deceased money, pay it to his heirs. If the sinner does not know of any heirs, deposit it with the Court." [Maimonides, Hilchot Teshuvah]

For reflection:

It is never too late. Your relationships continue, even beyond the grave. You deserve healing and closure, too. With whom do you need closure, who you might not be able to face directly?

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Elul 7 (Aug 16): The Weightiness of Sin

"No sin is so light that it may be overlooked. No sin is so heavy that it may not be repented of." [Moses Ibn Ezra]

For reflection:
Everything matters, life is in the details. And it is all details. What ‘details’ will you consider today, that might have seemed insignificant to you, but may be important to someone else? What broken details are you prepared to repair?

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Elul 6 (Aug 15): Anger
"Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten." [Buddha]

For reflection:
What thoughts or experiences of anger do you still hold on to? What could help you to let those go? Perhaps your desire that another person should let go of their resentments can help you to release your own thoughts of resentment.

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Elul 5 (Aug 14): Bad Habits
"The impulse to do evil is at first like a passer-by, then like a lodger, and finally like the master of the house." [Talmud Sukkah 52b]

For reflection:
What habits have taken up residence this year—welcome or unwelcome, good or harmful? What are you ready or able to escort to the door?

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Elul 4 (Aug 13): Awe-Inspiring Power
"If [a person] were able to survey at a glance all he has done in the course of his life, what would he feel? He would be terrified at the extent of his own power." [Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel]

For reflection:
Consider all that you have accomplished in your life-what inspires you? What overwhelms you? Be judicious today in using your power.

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Elul 3 (Aug 12): Pardoning
"Be assured that if you knew all, you would pardon all." [Thomas A. Kempis]

For reflection:
We are prone to judge others; let us remember today that there is often a complicated web of experience behind each person’s action or word. May we give the same grace that we hope to receive.

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Elul 2 (Aug 11): Kindness
"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." [Albert Schweitzer]

For reflection:
Have you ever experienced your kindness to ‘melt away’ the difficult feelings of someone else? Or perhaps, today you will open yourself to receiving kindness, letting it melt open your heart.

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Elul 1 (Aug 10): Holding On To The Past
"Moreover, if the wicked person repents of all the sins that one committed and keeps all My laws and does what is just and right, he shall live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions she committed shall be remembered against her; because of the righteousness she has practiced, she shall live. Is it My desire that a wicked man shall die?—says God. It is rather that he shall turn back from his ways and live." [Ezekiel, 18:21-23]

For reflection:
Repentance is always possible. And if God can accept true repentance from us, then surely, so can we from each other. Where in your life can you practice righteousness? What is your first step today toward change?