Stand Up + Walk
THE BIG IDEA
According to the Torah Omens this week is an excellent time to imagine yourself standing, along with the entire body of Israel, and renewing your personal covenant with the divine.
And while it is normal to experience spiritual chosen-ness as a ‘sometimes blessing’, and a ‘sometimes curse’, like it or not, it is yours to deal with and accept as much life itself. So take Moses’ heartfelt advice and do your best to CHOOSE LIFE.
Trust you will be personally tested, trust you (and the entire people) will individually (and collectively fail), trust that God will become hidden, and trust that no matter what, you (and we) will endure. Consciously embrace the gift of your spiritual access and closeness with the divine as if you were embracing your life itself. This week’s energy is an opening to step forward and return to your primary relationship to the divine.
Let’s all spend these final 7 days before Rosh Hashana preparing for the lights of the new year, and committing and recommitting to our blessings, to our spiritual heritage, to our divinely infused LIFE.
PREPARING FOR JUDGEMENT DAY… AND THE BEST YEAR EVER!
The following prompts are taken from one of my teacher S.Y. Schneider’s teachings on Rosh Hashanna.
This week find a quiet place, take out a journal, and do your best to review your past year and prepare for the year to come:
PART 1
The first is a backward facing reflection on the year gone by. What went right and what went wrong? How did I contribute to its successes? What was my role in its failures? What can I do to fix it? What needs to change, and what’s just fine the way it is? This backward focused work also includes a more practical dimension of resolving conflicts, returning borrowed objects, paying off debts, making neglected apologies. That’s one part of the work. To tie up loose ends, sort through the harvest of the previous year, leave the bad behind and extract the good.
PART 2
We should come to Rosh Hashana with a proposal in hand. As if to say, “HaShem it’s worth investing in my life, because this is what I’m going to do for you this year. The ROI (Return On Investment) is unquestionably worth your while. This is the contribution I intend to make to your global project of tikun olam. I’m going to improve and develop my property (my dalet amot) in the following ways (XYZ)…I’m going to contribute to the Jewish people and the planet in the following ways (XYZ). A small investment of blessings on your part will pay off in a bounty of tikun on my part. You will not regret your venture.”
GOOD LUCK!