“The great shofar will be sounded and a still, thin sound will be heard.” (Unetaneh Tokef)
It’s 7:37 pm on September 21st. It is the 22nd day of Elul.
Today is a day of reckoning and repentance. It is a day for seeking forgiveness, and for opening our hearts. Today – this month – is about t’shuvah. About releasing our pain, about seeking healing in places of brokenness, about repairing relationships that have been fractured.
Elul is the spiritual preparation to get us ready for the High Holidays, when we are to be shaken and awoken to act righteously, to act for justice, and reminded of the consequences.
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that both you and your people may live.” (Deut 30:19)
This passage of Torah is read during the High Holidays. It comes as Moses is about to lead the Israelite people to the promised land, and the people are reminded of the obligations they agreed to. They are reminded that they are in a covenantal relationship with G!d and each other, and that there are consequences to their actions, whatever they may be. To say that this piece of text resonates with me is something of an understatement. I have it tattooed on my wrist. Well, specifically I have u’vcharta b’chayim - therefore choose life – on the inside of my left wrist. For me, it represents the ethical framework by which I try to live my life. Choosing life is about choosing to act in the interest of growth, possibility, potential, abundance, and becoming. It is about what I see shining through the Torah – an obligation to act toward justice, to act with compassion, humility, and forgiveness.
So I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week – about obligation and ethics, about choosing healing in the face of brokenness.
And then on Monday, I read a sermon from a rabbi in Cleveland from Rosh Hashanah several years ago, in which he linked this passage from Deuteronomy to choosing gratitude. To choose life, he said, is to choose to recognize blessings and to be grateful. And through that gratitude, through acting upon that gratitude, our actions and relationships are transformed.
I have found gratitude in surprising places this week, and yet I feel overwhelmed by brokenness tonight.
