Holy Days Archive

Welcome to CLAL Holy Days, the place where you will find the latest thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on upcoming Jewish holidays.

Our authors are especially interested in hearing your responses to what they have written. So after reading, you should click and go to CLAL Holy Days Talk where you can join the conversation with CLAL faculty and other readers.

To access ARCHIVED HOLY DAY COMMENTARIES, click here.
To join the conversation at CLAL Holy Days Talk, click here.


It is Rosh Hashanah.

 

1. If I have chosen Tzedakah: I can use my talents and resources to create more justice in the world. What will I do this week that can make an immediate difference?

 

2. If I have chosen Tze’akah: I can cry out about all that’s unfair, but there are other equally effective ways: letters, petitions, social action, tears. Even prayer. How will I strategize to increase the possibility that my most pressing cry is heard?

 

3. If I have chosen Shinui hasheim: I may want to alter some aspect of my identity. In what ways can I expand beyond the way others define my professional title (Dr., Chairperson, lawyer, CEO...) or relational title (colleague, friend, parent, child...) to include my own personal dreams and aspirations?

 

4. If I have chosen Shinui ma’aseh: I may want to break some old, familiar patterns of behavior, such as the way I relate to my family or colleagues. If I decided to establish a new pattern

 

  

at home, at work, or in the community, how could I increase the possibility that it becomes habitual?

 

5. If I have chosen Shinui makom: This doesn’t mean I must literally leave where I am, though it could. What adjustments in the place I live and work--such as a photo on a desk, a mezuzah on a doorpost, an opened door, an adopted kitten, a ramp--that could change my feelings, purpose and possibilities in the place I’m in?

Or I can choose all five. After all, I have ten days.

 

Slach lanu

We do not have to atone alone; we atone together, linked in a holy community.

 

Rabbi Isaac said: Four things change a person’s fate, namely: tzedakah, crying out, changing one’s name, and changing one’s conduct...And some say: changing one’s place...

(Babylonian Talmud: Rosh Hashana 16b)

 


To join the conversation at CLAL Holy Days Talk, click here.
To access ARCHIVED HOLY DAY COMMENTARIES, click here.