Note - This year's High Holidays prep class is a short 45 minutes. To hear the audio and get the handouts, including the new "24 Questions to Think About from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur", click here.
Last week, I promised some thoughts about how to use the High Holidays to make an incremental but real change in yourself so that 20 years from now people who haven't seen you every day will do a double take.
I'll give you one simple thought, and one simple, true story that I think sum up what Rosh Hashana is all about.
The thought:
The main theme of Rosh Hashana is once a year to stand up and justify why you deseve another year of life.
Whether you are a true believer or agnostic or even atheist, the exercise of justifying your own existence is pretty powerful stuff.
What do you hope to accomplish in the next year that justifies your continued existence?
And your answer doesn't have to be earth-shaking.
It could be as humble as, "If I can live another year, I want to conquer my complaining. I want to become a person who appreciates everything that I have! A happier person!"
The rabbis teach that if I person could conquer even one negative character trait, that would not only justify his/her own life, it would justify the existence of the entire universe.
Think about it.
That's Rosh Hashana. Try to do this on Monday/Tuesday next week, and then next Friday I'll send a short email on how to actually achieve that change.
Now here's the story:
The New York Times this week reviewed the new exposé by former Lance Armstrong teammate, Tyler Hamilton.Hamilton tells in detail how the doping is/was done, not only by Armstrong, but by himself and practically every other cyclist.
Evidently it became so pervasive and the peer pressure so great that if you didn't dope, you might as well not compete. Here are Hamilton's own words:
“I think everybody who wants to judge dopers should think about it, just for a second. You spend your life working to get to the brink of success, and then you are given a choice: either join in or quit and go home. What would you do?”
I'll leave you, dear reader, with Hamilton's question to field at your Shabbat and Rosh Hashana tables.
Wishing you and yours a sweet, healthy, happy, successful 5773!
May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.
Shabbat Shalom and l'Shana Tova
PS - This year's High Holidays prep class is a short 45 minutes. To hear the audio and get the handouts, including the new "24 Questions to Think About from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur", click here.
PPS - http://bestjewishkidsbooks.com has great High Holidays books and gifts.
Another great Jewish gift: The iPhone/iPad app http://tinyurl.com/amazingcalendarlink
( Android version: http://tinyurl.com/amazingandroidcalendar )
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