Please accept my apologies for the late email. My new yeas resolution will be to get better with the timing of my pre-Shabbat emails. Please, hold me to it.
(This email is memory of Michoel Aron ben Avraham - Michael – Noeth hy”d, who lost his life in an act of cowardly terror on September 11th, 2001 at the Pentagon. Michaal’s, and all the other innocent victims’ yahrtzeitz were Thursday of this week, the 23rd of the Jewish month of Elul.)
This Shabbat* is the last Shabbat of the Jewish year 5770. In the coming week we will celebrate Rosh Hashana and the beginning of what we pray will be a happy, healthy and successful new year for ourselves, all Jewish people and the world as a whole. Welcome to 5771.
With the approach of Rosh Hashana and the culmination of the month of Elul, we will aim our focus of the last few days of 5770 to offer our prayers for world peace and gainful life. We are taught that during the month of Elul the King is in the field, HaMelech BaSodeh. The is to mean that G-d our King of Kings is easily accessible during the 12th month to receive our prayers and requests for the new year.
Knowing that G-d is listening at this time – and not only listening, but seeking our interaction – What will you say? What will you choose?
Interestingly, during the first of this week’s joint Torah portion of Nitzavim and Vayailech we are actually given a tip. In fact we are given an answer.
I call this day upon heaven and earth as witnesses. I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. And you shall choose life, so that you and your children may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19)
Great, we are told in the Torah that we should choose life. You may be asking yourself, I need this email to tell me to choose life at this time? Who would choose death?
Well, let’s take a look. There is living and there is existing. When we approach the King who breathes life into us, the G-d who provides for us and the master who has come out to see us, what will we ask for? Will we ask for health and wealth so we can sit around simply existing, or will we ask for wellbeing and livelihood in order to live?
What’s the difference? For one, existing can be viewed as selfish. Living is including others. Living involves giving back. Living is making a difference. To choose life means to choose to live a meaningful life, a life committed to values and a higher purpose.
Will my presence on this earth make a difference? That’s the question we need be asking ourselves at this time. Would anyone in the long run even realize I existed? Is my life productive, worthwhile?
When the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, wanted to bless one eof his followers, Reb Yekutiel Liepler with wealth, Liepler declined. He said he was afraid it would distract him from more spiritual pursuits. He was afraid it wouold distract him from “Living!” The Rebbe then offered to bless him with longevity. This, Reb Yekutiel feared wouold lead to a long but empty life.
Reb Yekutiel chose to “live” rather than “exist.” He chose to live a life that would be purposeful, productive and really would make a tangible difference.
As we stand just five days before Rosh Hashanah, and ahead of “Motzei Shabbos Selichos” – the supplication prayers we offer the Saturday night prior to Rosh Hashana**, let us resolve to choose life. Let us live lives of Torah values and noble deeds. And may we be blessed with a good and sweet new year.
*This Shabbat, while it is the Shabbat before a new Jewish month, will not include the customary “blessing of the new month” as do other Shabbats prior to the new month. According to the Chassidic Master, the Baal Shem Tov, "G-d Himself blesses the month of Tishrei, and it is with the power of this blessing that the people of Israel bless the other months of the year."
**The Selichot prayers are offered every year on the Saturday night prior to Rosh Hashana. (unless Rosh Hashana is on Monday or Tuesday, when the Selichot would be conducted the previous Saturday night.) The custom is to do the Selichot on Sunday morning but at the earliest time possible on Sunday. Thus, we offer the prayers on Saturday night, just after the halcahik midnight passes (just about 1:00 AM in most places). For more about the Selichot prayers and for the full Hebrew-English text, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/6moefg.
