A journey into myself
From 1 Elul to Yom Kippur – A journey to myself in 40 days and 40 questions
""The preparations "The mitzvah's consequences are more important than the mitzvah itself," says Rabbi Avraham of Shukotsov when interpreting the commandment to "be ready" before giving the Torah. What does it mean to be ready, to prepare for what? - The preparation itself is half the reception of the Torah, and indeed, sometimes the preparation is more important than the thing itself. The same is true regarding the Tishrei holidays.
Elul is the time for these preparations. The holidays of Tishrei are points of encounter, with our surroundings, with the sublime, and with ourselves. So how can we prepare for this contact? Preparing for Tishrei means opening up, being present to meet the present, and being ready for what the future holds for us, and most importantly – the unknown. Therefore, we invite you to join a special journey around the most important person – myself!
On the first day of Elul, an invitation opens for a personal journey into ourselves, a journey that begins on the first of Elul and ends on Yom Kippur.
It is an invitation addressed to us from somewhere in previous generations to open our senses, listen, and become more sensitive to the subtle nuances of our daily existence.
Elul is also an acronym for "I am to my uncle and my uncle to me," the intention being the emphasis in looking at the behaviors between one person and another. But before we talk about "my uncle," there is also the "uncle" that is dearest to us all - ourselves.
How will I look at myself with courage and honesty? How will I look inward with forgiveness and kindness?
We invite you on a personal journey. Each day we will present a question of intention that directs the self-view to the different aspects of our lives. It is time to take a few minutes each day for introspection and personal reflection. Each of the next 40 days contains a key. Take the opportunity to take each key and use it wisely.
To join our silent journey group, click here.
A journey for myself
A journey for myself
A journey to myself #1
The days of Elul give us a chance to zoom out and look at ourselves from a bird's eye view. The holidays of Tishrei are like fixed stops in the spiral of life. This is an invitation to stop and examine the grand scheme of our lives – where am I versus where do I want to be? Not to develop frustration but quite the opposite! From the standpoint that our lives are in our hands and we have another opportunity each year to steer the ship of our lives to where we want to go. Where am I today and where would I like to be? Take a few minutes –
If you want, you can even use a pencil to draw the two places and the gap between them. Listen to the song "Choose the Right One" by Amir Dadon –
A journey to myself #2
How many times have I raised my voice and regretted it immediately afterwards? Do I manage to control my emotions or do I let my emotions control me? Do I have a personal way to pause my reaction in situations where I feel difficulty? What helps me calm myself? The chapters of the Apocrypha teach us simply, "What kind of hero is he? He who conquers his own creation.".
A midrash on Parashat Toldot explains the verse, "And it came to pass, when Isaac was old, that his eyes could not see" (Genesis 27), in that anger removes the light. There is a kind of blindness in total surrender to the raging emotion. So how do I manage to pause? Response? Count to 10? outgoing Going for a walk in the sea? Listening to music? Breathing deeply? Writing in a journal? What is my way of being in control of My feelings…?
Please write on a clean page, What tools do you have at your disposal to calm the turbulent waters that occasionally overflow? Or In other words – how do I manage to control My temperament?
Wanted/Admiel Kosman
A quiet place is wanted.
Upon him rests the soul.
How many degrees?
only.
Wanted: A place to use
A path to the foot.
How many degrees?
only.
Wanted: A pot, a leaf,
Gibeol, or Shi'ah, may it never be established.
And it will fold when it is
Come. How many are there in the heart?.
One word is requested,
Clean, comfortable and warm, a place to relax.
A recorder, for me,
My dear, my dove-child, my soul
As soon as it came out of the ark,
How many minutes, in the morning hours,
And there is no escape from the place of rest.
To the leg.
A journey to myself #3
humanum est errare – to err is human, Seneca wrote as early as the 4th century BC. After him, they also added the sentence "and to forgive is divine.". The Jewish term for error is sin, and on the days of atonement and Yom Kippur in particular, we are called to list a broad series of general sins, which include our own mistakes and those of society together, and to confess them.
So what is "sin"? Sin comes from the word "sin," meaning "missing." When I'm not precise, when I don't do the most precise thing I should do, I miss something—and that's what sin is.
When was I not precise with myself? When was I not precise with those around me? How did I miss my goals this year? Are these misses recurring? Do I have the ability to be more precise, and not miss? Our answer is that the possibility of correction always exists.
The measure is always "Would I be able to act differently when I find myself in the same situation I was in when I made the mistake?".
Yehuda Poliker – "Things I Wanted to Say"
A journey to myself #4
What is my most significant achievement this year?
Every day we achieve achievements. Small and large. Waking up in the morning with vitality and strength for a new day can be a significant achievement for one person, while for another, a great financial success or an unprecedented achievement at work can be considered worthless. Achievement is in the eye of the beholder. Take a moment to think about your achievements in your eyes. What are my achievements in reaching out to others, what are my achievements in maintaining my health, in carefully maintaining a clean living space? What are my achievements in relationships with the people close to me? And which of my achievements is the achievement that makes me walk with my head held high and be proud of myself the most?
You are invited to listen and be inspired by the poetry of Avigail Uziel Amar on Rabbi Kook's sermon "Wings of the Wind""
A journey to myself #5
What habits or regular patterns would I like to get rid of?
""Habit becomes nature/ And nature is hard to change/ But in a permanent way/, "You have to try.""
This is what Hava Alberstein writes, and even if she didn't intend it, she hit exactly on the central theme of the month of Selichot and the High Holy Days: the possibility of starting over, breaking the patterns we are familiar with, and believing that it is possible to start again from the beginning. Every year the High Holy Days offer us a new opportunity to look at ourselves and examine which of our actions are choices and which are habits. How do I distinguish between nature and habit – even before it becomes nature?.
The Rebbe of Kobrin gives a creative interpretation of the verse, "Your shoes are above your feet, for the ground on which you tread is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). Don’t call it your shoes, he says – but your lock. 'Your lock is above your feet.' Shoes are the locks that fix us and don’t allow us to get out of our fixed patterns. The holy place is ""Here and now" is the fertile ground and the hour of opportunity in which the human spirit commands the positive action of renewal. Elul is a good time to shake off the locks so that we can arrive at Rosh Hashana free from these patterns.
You are invited to take some time and paper and make a list of the habits you would like to get rid of, and you are invited to bring the list to the community Tashlich ceremony that will be held on Rosh Hashanah.
Poetry by Hava Alberstein – "Habit Becomes Nature""
Ovadia Hamma's poem "Your locks are above your feet" – based on the midrash.
A journey to myself #6
What is stopping me from being the best version of myself?
I know exactly how I would like to live - what I would like to do, in what physical and human environment I would like to spend my daily life, how I want to feel and look. But life is not easy.. and there are things that prevent me from being exactly where I would like to be. What are these obstacles? What prevents me from living my life exactly as I would like? How can I overcome them and become the best version of myself?
Near his death, Rabbi Zusha Manipoli said: "In the world to come, they will not ask me: 'Why weren’t you Moses?' Rather, they will ask – 'Why weren’t you Zusha?'" Rabbi Manipoli’s famous statement succinctly states that even if we have role models, they are not us, and any imitation – even if it justifies the generation, misses the mark. The question we are invited to ask ourselves is whether my actions reflect my unique personality and my role in the world. Each person has a different role, and therefore my expectations of myself are different from the expectations of someone else. In fact, the question about achievements is always in relation to my role in life. And how do I figure out for myself what my role is? That is a different question. The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks writes that one way to get an indication of what my purpose in the world should be is at the intersection where my abilities meet what needs to be done. When the two paths intersect, there is a call to purpose. May we be able to be attentive to these voices, and recognize the obstacles that lie in the way.
You are invited to listen and be inspired by Arik Lavie's magical poetry in the song "On My Way"
Arik Lavie – "In My Own Way""
A journey to myself #7
What is a source of strength for me?
Send me strength, don't let me escape.
Even if the night is long and winding,
When the sun is erased again,
Bring me some peace,
This loneliness screams
And it's not always easy.
Send me strength, help me forgive,
In the shadow of every mistake lies a bright opportunity,
To start from scratch, to rise from the fall,
To breathe with all my strength, even if I have no air.
Send me strength, don't let me forget,
The light that lights up at the edge of every pain,
Give a little hope, a sliver of faith,
Just don't break, don't break my heart.
If you hear and it's not too late,
Send me strength because it's all that's left,
Let me just whisper a prayer to you and ask,
I'm already excited for you to come to me.
A song by Noam Horev and Rami Kleinstein performed by Avraham Fried – Send Me Strength