Rabbi Zeitlin

Meaning much more than it’s simple translation, a righteous man, especially in some expressions of chassidut the Tzadik is elevated to almost super-human status, endowed with the ability to intercede between a simple Jew and God. His is often conflated with Mashiach, who, himself, is elevated beyond the status of an anointed king in the line of King David, charged with re-enabling the Jewish people to return fully to Eretz Yisrael, leading the ingathering of exiles and, finally rebuilding the Bet HaMikdash, our holy temple in Jerusalem, extraordinary achievements all, but still very much human, to becoming parodies of comic-book superheroes.

Without a doubt, there have been tzadikim in our history, but the more traditional model is that they are one of the “lamed-vuv-nikim” (לו = 36), the Thirty-Six Hidden Tzadikim without whom in each generation, we’re taught the world cannot survive. These people are characterized by anonymity and humility and, of course, the clarity, compassion, kindness and understanding that are products of Talmud Torah v’Derech Eretz, Torah learning combined with compassionate and responsible living in the real world.

The path to ever-more-closely approach God through His Torah and Mitzvot is one that is open to all of us. Each of us has exactly the same tools that a Tzadik has, meaning that each of us has the exact same opportunity to become, ourselves, Tzadikim. Not personally reaching anywhere close to achieving this myself, I’m certainly not saying it’s an easy task. But, we are taught, especially by Tzadikim themselves, that it is always available. It is this possibility to totally transform ourselves that is at the heart of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur which we just experienced!

Likewise, we’re taught that there are two aspects of Mashiach, the individual and the communal. Each of us, through our hard work, can reach for ourselves, privately, the insights said to be generally available in the world in the approaching era of Mashiach. And when we all enter that period, are refined and rebuilt (one definition of תחית המתים (Techiyat HaMetim), “Reviving the Dead” (since until we become fully conscious, fully aware of and connected with The Creator, we are all, to a certain degree, dead inside), we’ll all fulfill our mandate of becoming כלם צדיקים… (Isaiah 60:21) (…Kulam Tzadikim) “…All of them Tzadikim”.

My point is that better than waiting and hoping and praying for the arrival of a Tzadik, of Mashiach, we have the power by refining ourselves with our miraculous tools of Torah and Mitzvot and Ma’ase Tovim (Good Acts) and Tzedakah (Charity), hopefully transforming our entire people and the whole world when the number of us who have sufficiently closely reached our potential finally achieves critical mass.

As our sages teach in Avot 2:17, לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמוֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה, we’re not expected to complete the project, but we’re not relieved of responsibity to contribute to the effort. We also learn in Avot (1:6), in the words of Rabbi Parchya, עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב (Oseh L’cha Rav), which is usually translated as “Acquire yourself a rabbi”. A much better understanding, also literally true to the text, is “Make yourself great!”

We’re just days away from refreshing the weekly Torah reading cycle at Simchat Torah. What better time, especially so closely following our renewal with the Yomim Noraim, Days of Awe, to re-create the world, this time as it should be.

Although I don’t recommend it to others, I usually daven solo. Mooting my increasing distractibility, I’m also able to go at my own pace and focus on words and sections that grab me. Given the sheer volume of tefillot, selichot and piyutim for Yom Kippur, in past years it all used to flash by too quickly to really let anything make an impression.

Utilizing a “technology” long lost to us, based on their thorough understanding the word-, phrase- and letter-levels of meaning and energy, our sages and tzadikim designed both each individual prayer as well as the overall flow within each service. They constructed an experience and an avodah (service) where we unleash tremendous healing forces both within our individual souls and into the universe-at-large. But, between the avalanche of words and the externally-determined (usually too-fast) pace, it’s often very hard to engage our awareness .

I strongly doubt if anyone is expected or capable to be 100% engaged and effective with 100% of the prayers. Since I find that each year I’m affected by a different mix of them, I assume that others are too. Probably the idea is that across Klal Yisrael, the entirety of the Jewish People, each of these tefillot, selichot and piyutim activates and is activated by those most in need of those particular words, effectively “employing” them all.

This year, my cyclical recital of Ramchal’s תקת״ו (Taktu), 515 Tefillot, with the synchronicity I’ve come to expect , has, specifically during this period of time, brought me a number of insights into the Avoda, divine service, the Kohain Gadol (High Priest) performed in the Bet HaMikdash (subject of a future series). Reading the Avoda section of the Musaf Amida yesterday filled me with tears as I thought about the loss we all suffer this and every year since the Churban, destruction of the Temple, when that holy service is but a memory.

This section is followed by the martyrology, the story of the ten great sages of our Mishnaic era who were cruelly tortured and slaughtered by the Romans for the “horrible sin” of teaching Torah to the Jewish people. Fortunate to regularly meet these eternal rabbis through my Talmudic and other studies, the exquisite beauty of their Torah, rewarded in Olam HaZeh, this material world, with their tragic suffering, brought more tears.

Tears on Yom Kippur are part of truly experiencing the לב נשבר (lev nishbar) broken heart, we’re asked to bring to our prayers. Most of us, myself included, would usually be too embarrassed to let ourselves be that vulnerable in public. Aware of all that I did miss from a Kehilla, community, experience, I still know I would not have left a table filled with wet tissues had I sat in any shul I’m familiar with.

It’s a trade-off, as it is for everyone in every situation. Part of the great message of Yom Kippur is that each of us has a unique role to play, which we must do in our own unique way, to bring Am Yisrael, The Jewish People, and the entire world, to our ultimate Geula, fulfillment.

Although there’s nothing wrong with feeling good, Jewish tradition has always placed a much higher value on doing good than feeling good. Who wouldn’t like to receive reward after reward for every mitzvah and good deed we perform? That we don’t underlies a great many spiritual truths, but I think we can all agree that life without constant reward is the norm.

If things do, indeed, work out for you as you try to live the most worthwhile, responsible, constructive life you can, Kol HaKavod, I salute you. But we rarely read books or see movies about lives of ease. Much more commonly, our opportunities to rise to a heroic challenge come with struggle, repeated failures and perseverance.

We’re each born with a unique Neshama. The true significance of this uniqueness is that of all the people ever born or ever to be born, there are certain necessary tasks that only you can fulfill. Or, as our deep tradition describes it, there are certain nitzutzei kedusha, holy sparks, uniquely assigned to an individual Neshama, which need to be restored for the world to reach its greatest potential.

Sometimes our role is dramatic, the very stuff of a Hollywood blockbuster, but more frequently it’s the much more prosaic, the daily effort of small achievements for which we rarely receive feedback. Nonetheless, our contributions are absolutely necessary and we only succeed with these day-in/day-out efforts. Anonymity, while not so dramatic, can be just as difficult an obstace to overcome as any. The work is often hard; facing Yom Kippur and looking forward to our our challenges, individual, communal and national, we need every strength we can gather.

The bracha I want to offer is described in the words of King David, Tehillim (Psalms) 84:8, יֵלְכוּ מֵחַיִל אֶל־חָיִל יֵרָאֶה אֶל־אֱלֹהִים בְּצִיּוֹן, (Yeylchu Me’Chayil El Chayil, Ye’Raeh El Elohim B’Tziyon), that we all be among those who “Go from strength to strength, (finally) appearing before God in Zion”. May we be confident God has already given us all the resources we each need for our journey to succeed.

We usually sing שיר המעלות, Shir HaMa’alot, just before we bench, recite ברכת המזון, Birkat HaMazon (The Blessing After the Meal) on Shabbat, Chaggim and other special days. It’s easy to lose the meaning in the melody as the energy of the meal has wound down.

We sing ….הָיִינוּ כְּחֹלְמִים: אָז יִמָּלֵא שְׂחוֹק פִּינוּ…. (…Hayinu k’Cholmim. Az Yimaleh Schok Pinu…), “We were like dreamers. Then our mouths will be filled with laughter.” and we often miss the point entirely.

Now, we are like dreamers, only semi-conscious, half-alive. Only אז (Az) “Then”, …בְּשׁוּב יְיָ אֶת שִׁיבַת צִיּוֹן… (B’Shuv HaShem Et Shivat Tziyon), “When God returns us to Zion,” will our mouths be filled with joyous laughter.

As we’ll end Yom Kippur we’ll proclaim, לשנה הבאה לירושלים, Next Year in Jerusalem

“In a street of the blind, a one-eyed man is considered filled with light” (Bereishit Rabba 30:9), (בשוק סמייא צווחין לעווירא סגי נהור (בראשית רבה ל:ט. Placing myself at the top of this list, I believe that at this late date in our galut, exile, no one fully knows what we should be doing as Jews. Specifically, our world of Halacha is/has crumbling/crumbled and we don’t know the way forward. Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo describes our reality in a brilliant essay on Yom Kippur and Kol Nidre. Even those of us who have not forgotten/repressed that we are Jews have largely forgotten/repressed what it means to be a Jew and how to do it.

A significant part of our challenge is that we’re living in the very vortex of transition. The shift in focus and importance to the Jewish community living in Israel (there has always been a continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land ever since the days of Joshua, but since the Roman exile two millennia ago, only until recently has that community become even numerically significant) and away from historically (and increasingly formerly) important diaspora communities means that we now have more than survival and preservation in a hostile environment as our primary goal. As mandated by our Prophets and Sages, we are entering the era where we finally put our “spiritual technology”, Torah and Mitzvot, to its intended purpose, bringing the world to it’s highest potential state of complete perfection. Unfortunately, rather than developing/discovering this new modality we need, the vast majority of Torah experience currently observed and taught in Israel today is a direct transplant of those older forms. This “holding pattern” is not only increasingly less relevant to our future, but the strict adherence to not only the forms, but even the clothing and language of exile seems hostile to what we must become. (Witness the current Chief Rabbinate’s opposition to any Jewish presence on Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount).)

I’m not talking about or calling for an assimilation/secularization of Judaism by any stretch of the imagination, but rather a recalibration to achieve the aim described variously as Mashiach, Olam HaAtid (The Future World) and Olam M’Tukan (The Repaired World). This goal, perhaps best called תורת ארץ ישראל (Torat Eretz Yisrael), The Torah of the Land of Israel (in distinction to the diaspora), involves, among other things, the vast majority of the world’s Jews living in Eretz Yisrael, engaged with Torah and Mitzvot (hopefully, with mitzvot re-calibrated away from the goal of separating us from a former non-Jewish majority and towards aligning ourselves, and our world, to receive the שפע עליון (Shefa Elyon) Divine Flow, culminating with the actualization of Bayit Shlishi, the Third Temple, which will reveal into our world the maximum expression of the אור אין סוף (Ohr Eyn Sof) Infinite Light. But because we’re (hopefully and with the help of The Almighty) just now approaching this historical era, not only has this Halachic modality yet to be worked out, most present halachic authority, steeped in the past and, in too many cases, afraid to face the present, let alone the future, is at least mildly (and often much more than that) hostile to the enterprise.

At the same time, we have to understand and respect this reluctance, since these leaders do understand the enormous power and energies that result from Torah and Mitzvot. It’s wise to be cautious when “playing with fire”. On the other hand, we and they need greater אמונה (Emunah) Faith and בטחון (Bitachon) Trust in God, Who created us, understands our fallibility and yet charged us with this ultimate mandate. Even with the purest כוונה (Kavvanah) Intent, we’ll certainly make mistakes along the way, but there is a world of difference between the potential dangers of false starts and the nihilistic chaos of a proverbial “bull in a china shop”.

Because it’s so easy to get lost both in the big picture, with vague generalities of “spirituality”, “universalism” and “holiness”, and in the little picture of generating ever-more detailed ways to become over-strict with mitzvot, we desperately need to nurture a generation of bold, yet cautious, inspired and devout leaders.

Just as the theme for each of us during these Yomim Noraim, Days of Awe, is to remember who we are in the depths of our Neshamot, souls, and to return to our Torah-connected, and thus God-connected, selves, our theme as Am Yisrael is to at least begin to recall who we are, why we were created and what only we, uniquely as Jews, can and must bring to the world. And to then begin walking, first with one eye closed if we must, but soon with both wide open, together, in that direction.

תזכו לשנים רבות Tizku l’Shanim Rabot, May we earn not merely many, but many richly-filled years.

We spend a lot of time thinking about God on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Perhaps the major theme of Rosh HaShanah, and one of the three major sections of the Musaf Amida, is Malchiyot, coronating God as King. Who/What do we have in mind?

I propose that one of the very few valid answers to the question of the title, “God is ………” is “infinitely complex beyond our grasp”. While we can say those words, almost every fiber of our being rebels against that idea. Historically, the idea of a single, unitary God Who defies all definition has been mankind’s most revolutionary concept and has always been resisted. On a personal level, even those of us most committed to Torah constantly must fight the urge to concretize God, at least in our deepest imaginations. It’s almost impossible not to.

Most of our being, as humans, is material. As such, each of us is, substantially, bounded. Even our thoughts, when approached as merely the result of many electro-chemical impulses in our brains, are thus physical and, therefore, bounded. The mere existence of something not limited with any boundaries whatsoever so insults our very being that we’re incapable of grasping it (since, without boundaries, what is there to “grasp”?).

Religiously, there has always been a current which elevates the Written Torah over the Oral Torah. One is considered (at best — bible critics don’t even grant it this status) the Word of God, the other merely the words of men. Underlying this drive is the desire to embrace what appears finite: a certain number of words, a certain number of letters, a certain weight of black ink on a certain amount of parchment, while resisting the ever-growing, tending-towards-infinity Oral Torah.

Likewise, we all have a natural tendency to concretize metaphor. We want to say that A = B and nothing else. It’s too challenging to our nature to consider that A = B = C, and when that chain is extended our mind shuts down. Thus, when we declare God as מלך (Melech), King, on Rosh HaShanah we imagine an old man, wrapped in ermine cloaks, crowned with gold and sitting on a luxurious throne. In doing so, we completely miss the point.

מלכות (Malchut), which does superficially translate as “Kingship”, represents both the Source of All and the Receiver of All in our deeper “mystical” tradition. An ever-generating and ever-radiating source of everything there is, matter, energy and all that lies beyond that very limited spectrum. Additionally, at each moment it also receives back this infinite transmission. To be honest with you, while I can say these words I cannot claim to really understand, grasp or even imagine that reality.

Nevertheless, we’re not only limited and physical beings. Rather, our materiality encloses a spark of The Infinite in its purest form, הנשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא (HaNeshama Shenatatah Be Tahara He), “The soul (Neshama) You placed within me is pure”. While our Neshama is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a sensory organ and doesn’t give us a “backdoor” ability to understand God in His Infinite Complexity, it does allow us to participate in His Reality through the modality of Devekut, attachment. We can draw the Infinite Light, the אור אין סוף (Ohr Eyn Sof) into our own infinite connection, thus connecting this life-giving/sustaining energy to the physical which encloses our Neshamot.

Thus, when we declare God as מלך (Melech), we’re engaging in this process which gives existence itself to all creation.

We don’t need to understand, grasp or even “know” God. Rather, we experience Him in His Infinite Complexity.

May we merit many years, both in this world and the next.

Everything that happens to us, individually and collectively, happens for a reason. Rather, an entire array of reasons, each contributing a shade here, a subtlety there. The challenge for us is that they don’t arrive with labels to identify these reasons.

In the flurry of pre-Rosh HaShanah/Yom Kippur preparations, we tend to focus only on the reward-punishment dimension and remain unaware of the rich reality all the other many dimensions together generate. Thus it’s very easy to overlook the contribution of the “Greater the Kedushah the Greater the Tumah” mechanism. We then misread the message of many things that obstruct us and resist our efforts as punishment, leading us to wonder what we did wrong, when, in fact, this very resistance might be trying to signal to us just how right we are! And, the stronger the resistance the closer we might be to success. Additionally, this process operates on both the individual and the communal/national scales.

Our challenge, however, is that this resistance/opposition don’t come with handy labels for us to identify whether they are encouragement or discouragement (or are on an entirely different parameter) . We need to work that out for ourselves. This actually parallels a question posed by Devarim (13:2-6), how do we distinguish a false Navi (prophet) from a true one? The test is whether or not he leads us to נֵלְכָה אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יְדַעְתָּם וְנָעָבְדֵם, “Let us walk after (follow) “other” (external) gods which we never knew and let us (now) serve them,” or if he keeps us loyal to God and His Torah. The answer partially depends on what we’re engaged in when we encounter all this resistance. If we’re merely engaged in our personal agenda, it might be helping us resist self-damage that might result if we persist (the cliché of driving all over town to find a cheeseburger but finding all the fast-food shops closed). On the other hand, we can view this Yetzer Hara desire to transgress itself as resistance/confirmation of our efforts to eating properly. If we’re engaged in fulfilling our mandate of Torah and Mitzvot, for example settling the land of Eretz Yisrael (including living in Yehuda and Shomron, but also the tremendous difficulty many of us face just trying to bring ourselves on Aliyah to anywhere in the Holy Land), perhaps the obstacles that arise at our every step are ever-stronger signals that we are, indeed, headed on the right path!

Following our return, after two thousand years, to a thriving, albeit imperfect sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael, we continue to encounter the resistance of countless wars large and small since 1948, endless terrorism both in Israel and abroad, diplomatic isolation and raging worldwide antisemitism. As a major, and one of the penultimate steps towards creating the Kedusha in the world, our very raison d’être, we can understand all this resistance either as the mere continuations of age-old Jew-hatred, nothing new but just more, or as the outrage of Tumah, resisting not only the amazing Kedusha we’ve already achieved, but that much greater Kedusha we’re on the very verge of bringing to the entire world. It’s confirmation that not only are we on the right path, but that we’re so very close to success. When we see the jealous, last-ditch battle against any increase in Kedusha, even in such seemingly trivial matters as making a bracha over a drink of water on Har HaBayit, leading to the arrest and detention of the “offending” Jew, and ponder the threatened consequences of organized Jewish prayer on this holiest spot of physical creation, we should be even more encouraged that we’re doing what we should. Imagine the level of international outrage and condemnation when Kedusha is so great that all that remains to do is to build Bet HaMikdash, Bayit Tefilla l’Kol HaAmim, a House of Prayer for All Nations!

No, our goal is not to outrage, exclude or anger anyone. Our mission to return this powerhouse font of Or Ein Sof, the Infinite Life-giving Energy, to its physical manifestation is for the benefit of every nation and every individual, not merely that of Am Yisrael, the Jewish People. It is our exclusive job, yes, but not our exclusive turf. And it’s not the only job that needs to be carried out by Man, it’s just our job. (Our Torah and Mitzvot, addressed to us (while, of course, having important messages for other people), minimally discusses the responsibilities of other traditions, but certainly leaves open that other peoples, all peoples, have their unique roles in this ultimate project of completing Creation. Just as only we need to know the detailed instructions for our task, we don’t need to know the detailed instructions they have for theirs. We assume that they also are tasked with bringing Kedusha into the world (and people of good will and action of all faiths encounter parallel resistance to their good work just as we do to ours).)

Rather than despair, and there are more than enough crises and tragedies in today’s world and certainly within Israel and the Jewish world as well if that’s what you want to do, I choose to anticipate a new year of inspiration. We are so close. לשנה הבאה בירושלים!

May we all be inscribed and sealed for a holy and wonderful year.

I hate playing “My religion is better than your religion”, but I find it tragically depressing when compassion, an admirable quality indeed, is presented by much of the liberal denominations as Judaism’s ultimate goal. I find it equally distressing when much of the orthodox community extends compassion only within their own small groups.

I don’t know very much about Buddhism, but at least in the watered-down Buddhism that underlies many of the “New Age” forays into spirituality, compassion does appear to be the supreme goal (my guess is that in purer forms it’s, just like it is in Judaism, instead an early or intermediate step, but I don’t know that for sure). The truth is that for Judaism, qualities such as kindness and compassion, while very important, are really prerequisites to begin the journey.

While it’s true that you can’t move beyond the most superficial performance of Mitzvot without constantly growing and refining your inner qualities of Chesed and Rachamim, love and compassion, you can’t move into the deeper realms of Avodat HaShem, serving God, independent of the Mitzvot. This is because our deepest goals, aimed at partnering with The Creator to bring שלימות (Shleimut) perfect completion, to our world, are reached by drawing down into our physical realms of being the אור אין סוף (Ohr Ein Sof), Infinite Light, the energy which enables the existence of the universe and which provides the ultimate life-sustenance to everything. Our “toolbox” for that comprises these Mitzvot, even if we’re often unable to see any direct, empirical connection.

As is, we are half, or less, awake and everything survives in a marginally vital condition, הָיִינוּ כְּחֹלְמִים (Hayinu K’Cholmim) we were like dreamers. Descriptions of primordial Eden, and hence our return to our ultimate future, describe all trees as bursting with life-force, bearing ready-to-eat food. Man is described as possessing vision which spans from one end of the earth to the other, standing with our heads in the heavens and our feet on the ground. When we consider our finest achievements to date, they are all the more remarkable since we and our world are more or less merely hibernating!

Our people are entrusted with the mandate to reach the highest spiritual realms, but not for our own narcissistic benefit/enlightenment/power/exhilaration (although as a side benefit we might experience all of these and more). Rather, it’s in order to direct that highest energy found there through safe passage into our physical world for the benefit of all created beings. The “instruction manual”, that balance of our Written and Oral Torah which are our 613 Mitzvot, provides us a step-by-step (Halacha is, literally, the walking) method to our spiritual ascent, culminating in the rebuilding of the Bet HaMikdash, literally, the House of Holiness, which is the main portal, shut off for these millennia, for this Light to enter, purify and power our universe.

Perhaps, after all, you can say that Compassion is our ultimate goal, but that’s true only when you realize how greatly each of us, by making our unique contributions to the total enterprise, can benefit all and can participate in lifting ourselves, next כלל ישראל (Klal Yisrael), the entire Jewish People וכל העילם כלו (V’Kol HaAm Kulo) and, ultimately, the entire world, always moving from the innermost to the outermost (as we bring the energy from the outermost spiritual realm to the innermost where it intersects with the physical) to our greatest potential.

Remember that God is the One הַמְחַדֵּשׁ בְּטוּבוֹ בְּכָל יוֹם תָּמִיד מַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית (HaMikadesh B’Chol Yom Tamid Ma’aseh Breishit) Who renews with His Essential Goodness, each and every day, all the energy of The Creation. That means there are no limits to the heights we can reach and the energy we can then direct back. Never for our own selfish purposes, but, rather as our highest expression of our individual Human (rather than Divine) Compassion, to the entire universe.

Albert Einstein was a brilliant theoretical physicist and mathematician, but that doesn’t deify his every pronouncement. His too-often repeated statement that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result” is refuted by the common wisdom, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”.

Although it was always pretty much a foregone conclusion that the recent Iran Capitulation Agreement will stand, many dedicated people, including some I tremendously respect, invested an enormous amount of time, money and energy trying to generate the support to defeat it. Were they wasting their time? Is “merely” rallying the troops worth the efforts? Was there ever a chance for success?

As Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur approach and we prepare to invest significant time, effort and emotion in prayer, don’t we all know from the start that we’ll sin over and over again in this new year? Our prayers and intentions for Tshuvah (mending our ways) are doomed to fail, so are we merely displaying symptoms of insanity?

I’ve been blessed to call many world-class musicians my friends. When I ask them if they’ve ever, even once, played a piece of music “perfectly”, everyone points out exactly where they missed an exact pitch, a precise moment, an aimed-for timbre of color. In all the years that I enjoyed a reputation as one of the premier black-and-white photo-printers, my eye would instantly travel to every point on a final print that I didn’t tickle into the “right” tonality.

Before the Shaliach Tzibur (prayer leader) chants Kol Nidre, perhaps the keystone to the entire Yom Kippur service, he proclaims in the name of both the heavenly and the earthly courts, אָֽנוּ מַתִּירִין לְהִתְפַּלֵּל עִם הָעֲבַרְיָנִים (Anu Matirim L’Hitpalel Im HaAvaryanim), “We are permitted (actually, we’re mandated) to pray with sinners”. This is not, as some current fads might interpret it, a declaration of inclusion. Rather, it’s a recognition that even with immense effort, each of us is, and once again will be, significantly less than perfect.

Are we thus wasting our many hours, attention span and patience in prayer? I’m not impressed with the apologetic that “we’d be even worse if we didn’t”. However, repeated, serious, sincere and strenuous effort, even if unsuccessful this time, is a necessary step in itself towards that ultimate outcome we all pray for: both ourselves and our world made whole, redeemed and, finally, existing at our full potentials. Rabbi Tarfon in Avot 2:17 (אבות ב:טז) famously teaches, לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמוֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה (Lo Alecha MaMalacha Li’Gmar, V’lo Ata Ben Chorin LiBatel Mimena) “It’s not up to you to complete the work, but you are not free to do nothing”.

It is only through the continuous, combined, necessarily incomplete attempts and efforts of each and every one of us Avaryanim, sinners, both this year and in all coming years, that we will sufficiently refine ourselves and bring our world to its ultimate fullness.

Tizku l’Shanim Rabot, may we all earn an everlasting future. Shana Tova.

אל אחד יחיד ומיוחד (El Echad Yachid U’M’Yuchad) One, Unique and Unifying God, may my efforts free the purest tones I can produce with this simple Shofar, the horn of the smallest, most insignificant of beasts, to rise straight to You, drawing with them the Neshamot, souls , all of them pure (אֱלֹהַי נְשָׁמָה שֶׁנָּתַתָּ בִּי טְהוֹרָה הִיא, “My God, the Neshama you placed within me, it is pure”), of all Yisrael. May these sweet tones of my Shofar continue to rise within You, sweetening all judgements that our actions caused these beautiful souls. May the echoes of these powerful tones fortify these souls as they return to this world of action, empowering each of us to find and lift our unique sparks and thus bring perfection to Your Creation. כן יהי רצון (Keyn Yehi Ratzon) May Your Will be thus.