Monday, August 26, 2013

Engaging w/ Elul August 27, 2013

The challenge of teshuvah (true repentance and turning) for me is mostly, I think, in being able to only look inward.  So much of our lives are spent looking at the world, which can serve as a mirror.  We see how others react to us and we recognize something needs to change, or just a tweak.  Either our choice of words, our demeanor, or whatever.  But this inevitably, at least for me, leads down the path of judgment.  Assessing my own behaviors and decisions using the actions of others a yardstick is "judgmental".  This cannot be true teshuvah.  Perhaps, that is where our rich tradition of guiding our ways comes into play, yet it is my distraction.  I know that to not only find the best self moving into the new year, but also to truly raise my life to a higher level, I must also be authentic to only using myself as the yardstick.

It is hard to know what I can be, for I have not yet been.  This discovery is the power of teshuvah.  This is the power of this season in our Jewish tradition.

May your day be one during which you discover just a bit (or hopefully a lot) of your best self!

Rabbi Evon

No comments:

Post a Comment