"Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes...how do you measure the life of a woman or man?"
bs'd
Yes, it's so completely cliche to quote Rent, but I'm one of those people who believes that a cliche is only a cliche because it's true to life and fitting. Looking back, a year is a very long time..when you stop to think of just how many opportunities and chances to do the right thing,to make the choices and decisions that lead us closer to Hashem and the strength it takes to stay on His derech, its magnitude can be pretty overwhelming.
Being human, it's really hard to always appreciate which choice to make. We have obstacles blocking our clarity from every side- we're attacked by our yetzer hara, and are so easily sucked into choosing what's simply the "easy way out". Unfortunately, we often end up (even if inadvertently) hurting the people we love and care about along the way. I know, no matter how hard I've tried, that I have made mistakes, and there have been times when I've slipped up and made that wrong decision.I think that one of the most important aspects of tshuva is acting upon it-there's no real point in just saying you're sorry if you're just going to keep on acting the same way you did before. So now's a great time to do some introspection, and really take the time to rectify the mistakes that we have made and improve our actions and ways of behaving.
In Mesechet Rosh Hashana (perek gimmel), the Mishna discusses a few different aspects of the shofar, (which I learnt in shiur the other day with Rabbi Greenberg). It begins with conditions that need to be met for it be kosher, where it comes from, attributes of the shofar yovel vs. shofar shel rosh hashana - basically, all the technical stuff. It then moves on to a particular case of, in essence, a man walking to shul while the shofar is being blown inside. Is he yotze to having heard it?
The answer brought down is "Im Kiven libo, yotze". If he has the kavana in his heart, he's yotze. It's that simple! All we need to do is align our hearts to Hashem and truly feel that connection and devotion inside of us. My bracha to all of you is that you have a shana tova umetuka, in which we all follow the true "compass" in our hearts and have a chatima tova in sefer hachayim, blessed with hatzlocha, parnassa, briyut, ahavah, mazel and anything and everything good thing there is.
According to the Kabbalah, the shvarim represent anxiety and nervousness, while the tkiyah of the shofar is meant to offset it, to calm and reassure us. Be'ezrat Hashem, may we be zoche to feel that rachamim this year and to witness the coming of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash bimhera biyamenu!!
May you all have a Shana Tova Umetuka and a Chatima Tova!
bs'd
Yes, it's so completely cliche to quote Rent, but I'm one of those people who believes that a cliche is only a cliche because it's true to life and fitting. Looking back, a year is a very long time..when you stop to think of just how many opportunities and chances to do the right thing,to make the choices and decisions that lead us closer to Hashem and the strength it takes to stay on His derech, its magnitude can be pretty overwhelming.
Being human, it's really hard to always appreciate which choice to make. We have obstacles blocking our clarity from every side- we're attacked by our yetzer hara, and are so easily sucked into choosing what's simply the "easy way out". Unfortunately, we often end up (even if inadvertently) hurting the people we love and care about along the way. I know, no matter how hard I've tried, that I have made mistakes, and there have been times when I've slipped up and made that wrong decision.I think that one of the most important aspects of tshuva is acting upon it-there's no real point in just saying you're sorry if you're just going to keep on acting the same way you did before. So now's a great time to do some introspection, and really take the time to rectify the mistakes that we have made and improve our actions and ways of behaving.
In Mesechet Rosh Hashana (perek gimmel), the Mishna discusses a few different aspects of the shofar, (which I learnt in shiur the other day with Rabbi Greenberg). It begins with conditions that need to be met for it be kosher, where it comes from, attributes of the shofar yovel vs. shofar shel rosh hashana - basically, all the technical stuff. It then moves on to a particular case of, in essence, a man walking to shul while the shofar is being blown inside. Is he yotze to having heard it?
The answer brought down is "Im Kiven libo, yotze". If he has the kavana in his heart, he's yotze. It's that simple! All we need to do is align our hearts to Hashem and truly feel that connection and devotion inside of us. My bracha to all of you is that you have a shana tova umetuka, in which we all follow the true "compass" in our hearts and have a chatima tova in sefer hachayim, blessed with hatzlocha, parnassa, briyut, ahavah, mazel and anything and everything good thing there is.
According to the Kabbalah, the shvarim represent anxiety and nervousness, while the tkiyah of the shofar is meant to offset it, to calm and reassure us. Be'ezrat Hashem, may we be zoche to feel that rachamim this year and to witness the coming of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash bimhera biyamenu!!
May you all have a Shana Tova Umetuka and a Chatima Tova!
