AM Inspiration

I had a sobering realization on the train yesterday. I was thinking (instead of studying) about who I am, where I'm going, what I'm doing, who I've become..all those common self reflective questions that come up at this time of year. All that thinking brought me to a sinking realization. A frightening conclusion. I no longer was thinking like a Jew. I was going through the motions. Doing all the things that I was supposed to. But my thought processes, my logic, my trains of thought were not in the Jewish vein. My teacher, Rabbi Brown, said a lot of things but one of the things that always stuck with me is the importance of thinking like a Jew, thinking like someone who is connected to generations leading back to the giving of the Torah. Thinking like someone who yearns and craves for a relationship with her Father the King of the world. Thinking like someone who believes that every thought and action has a consequence not only in this world but in all 7 Sfirot. In...

Just across this song- I think its quite apropos for this time of year

Its that time of year again. The time of year when we all scramble. Scramble to fix everything we did wrong the whole year in one week. After all, Chazal tell us that its possible. Today i can do teshuva for all the Wednesdays of the year. Its a daunting and overwhelming task. How is it even possible to do that? If I am perfect today...will it make all the past Wednesdays perfect? Is it a superimposed image? does it replace them? How does it work? That i cannot profess to know. But one thing I do know...it would be foolish of me to ignore the opportunity. The Rambam says that we are to consider ourselves as if we are " bein onim " middle of the rd..neither tzaddikim or reshaim, and must use this week to do teshuva so that we will be worthy of being written in the book of life. It is not enough to just do more mitzvot to push us over onto the "good" side. It is only the "act" of teshuva that will bring us a favorable judgment. I was thinking about wha...