Erev Rosh Hashanah 5777 - Temple Bat Yam, South Lake Tahoe, CA

You Can’t Do it All!  And You Can Do a Lot!

It was just over a week ago that my dear friend, whom many of you know, Rabbi Ken Kanter called to wish me a Shabbat Shalom.  As we chatted, he asked how my writing was coming along for, well, for tonight.  I said:  I haven’t written a word yet….just staring at the computer.  Then he asked, “Well, what are you trying to write about?”  To which I responded:  Focus!  While this struggle was my own in the moment, it certainly pervades all our lives, our world.  We are constantly struggling to put the right attention where and when it is most needed and that’s what these days of awe are about.

I should say that in that particular moment, I was not simply staring at a blank screen.  I was engaged in the emails landing in my inbox.  There was a list of phone calls I was considering returning, I was readying for the Shabbat celebration we had approaching with one of our young people becoming Bar Mitzvah.  Oh yeah, I of course always have one chief procrastination activity going on too and at that moment, and since we are in the season of confession, I was cycling our winter jackets and ski pants for their yearly wash and waterproofing…priorities you know!  I am sure, at least I hope, I’m not alone in that there are always many things on our plates vying for our attention. 

There is a Chasidic teaching from the 18th century that occupies page three of our Machzor, the first entry of the meditations for the High Holy Days.  It teaches us, “Just as the hand, held before the eye, can hide the tallest mountain, so the routine of everyday life can keep us from seeing the vast radiance and the secret wonders that fill the world.”  Too often, it is not the hand held before our eyes, but rather the countless tasks, obligations and varying commitments filling our lives that blur our vision. 

It is fascinating to me that in a world full of buzz words like mission and vision; in a world inundated with strategic planning workshops we are simultaneously surrounded by the pressures of multitasking.  Even more, we are oft praised for taking on so much even at the expense of excellence.  It makes me think about the computer screen that sat before me when Rabbi Kanter called.  I had at least seven windows open.  One, my web browser, had at least five different tabs competing for my attention. 

Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son in the 18th century, “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” While this generational advice survives from three centuries ago, we seem to have found ourselves continuing this struggle. 

I recently heard a story that brought this challenge into focus.  It was a moment for a group of three close friends embarking on an adventure.  They set out with only a rough plan to explore some of the natural world together - too experience the radiance and wonders of the world around us.  As they focused more on their plan and set out, they engaged in a conversation of meaning about countless other opportunities they hoped to seize, but work, family….and life simply occupied their attention and often side-lining other adventures.  Silence set in as one friend said to the others, “Well, you can’t do it all!”  As their time together unfolded, they laughed, shared challenges and dreamt of future experiences…they did a lot in a short two day adventure…you could say they climbed mountains together.  You see, for these three friends, packing their days, their lives with as much as possible was the normal pattern of life..trying to fit it all in, to take on more…  Yet, that moment of silence spoke volumes.  It was acquiescence at first, a reluctant acceptance that not all can be done.  But this grew into a deep respect and even an appreciation for the moment - the adventure at hand.  It was an appreciation for what IS possible.  It was a moment of hyper focus to realize that trying to take on everything, to live multitasking, may actually be a barrier to seeing life, it blocks the vast radiance and secret wonders that fill our lives…our world.

From the technology that lives in our pockets and the connectivity it affords to the amazing opportunities we yearn for to fill our lives, the distractions are all around us. 
We are all guilty of such inattention, or what the field of psychology has come to identify as “continuous partial attention”.  We live this way throughout the year; at the High Holy Days, our attention seems to shift.  Its not always perfect by any stretch of the imagination, yet at this season, we as Jews throughout the world gather at the same time to engage in what Joel Grishaver, a great Jewish teacher, has identified as a power of Judaism.  He teaches that, “Judaism is about punctuating time, sometimes it is a comma, other times a period.”  Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, the Yamei HaTeshuvah - Days of Repentance, represent a full stop period.  Their power lies in the opportunity we are given to begin the next phrase in the story of our lives, the life that will continue when the final blast of the shofar signals the conclusion of Yom Kippur ten days from now. 

This evening we have opened a book we see only at this time of year.  We engage in liturgy that uniquely punctuates this season.  Perhaps these rituals are the black INK of the period punctuating our year.  Rosh Hashanah, the anniversary of the creation of the world, the days between and Yom Kippur must serve as our frame or a model of focus.  We often use this time to create our own Cheshbon HaNefesh - an accounting of our soul, better yet it is more wholesome to engage these days as what I want to call a Cheshbon HaChaaim - an accounting of life. 

We must begin by asking what is the power in these days that not only draws us to this physical space but the spiritual space too.  How do the words we utter at this time of year provide us this model?  No, we certainly cannot do it all!  And, we can accomplish a lot.  The High Holy Days provide us the space in time to do this accounting of our lives, to enumerate the parts of our lives upon which we ought to focus and to ensure the days that follow become imbued with meaning; to find a meaning not diluted by the forces around us competing for our attention.

It is this time of year that, hopefully, our continuous partial attention becomes unified in the religious acts, the rituals that surround us.  Rabbi David Wolpe describes a different kind of sight that allows us so see what is essential - to focus not on what we cannot do, but rather what we are and what we can accomplish.  He calls it Religious Vision and he writes about it by stating: 

Religious vision means seeing beyond what is apparent.  There is a blessing we recite each morning, he continues, thanking God for the marvelous workings of the human body.  The chatimah, the end of the blessing, declares that God is mafli la’asot, that in fashioning the human body, God acts wondrously, that God has fashioned miracles.  The author of that ancient Talmudic blessing, Wolpe reminds us, was Rav Sheshet, who was blind.  Imagine the vision granted to that sage.  He did not see what was visible, but he saw what was essential.  In his life and ours, Rav Sheshet let in the light.

So often, it is easier to allow our focus to be drawn to what seems most pressing, to lose sight of the grander picture, to lose focus on the grandeur of the gift life is.  There is a great Chelm story, you know the village of fools, that points out the importance of looking in the right places.  The tale begins:  It was a great day when electricity came to Chelm. It was still a novelty and so there were only a few street lights on one side of the road.  Still there was electricity.  The people were very excited.  They danced and shouted and rejoiced night after night.  One night, Shmuel was dancing around and suddenly he heard some coins drop out of his pocket.  He really needed that money the next day so he was very upset.  He started looking around on the ground under the street light.  His friend Yosef came over and asked him what he was doing.  Shmuel explained that he had been dancing over on the other side of the road and his coins had dropped out. He really needed the money so he was searching for it.  Yosef asked him why he was searching under the street light when he had been dancing on the other side of the road.  Surely, the coins would not have rolled that far.  Shmuel looked up at Yosef and explained.  “The light is better over here.”

You see, when we put our attention, our continuous partial attention, where it may seem easiest, we fail to focus on the essential.  This Cheshbon HaChaim - accounting of our lives is a process that shapes us and it is hard.  It is this period in the punctuation of the year that enables us to shed light exactly where we need to look. 

In the Mussar tradition of Judaism, the course of study that engages us in the traits of our souls, we are taught that life presents us the curriculum.  Alan Morinis, director of the Mussar Institute, teaches about patience, that if we often find ourselves impatient and feel like we are always in the longest line in the grocery store, then perhaps patience should be the trait we ought to work on.  Let us consider the tools of our tradition, rather than reinventing the wheel, what does Judaism in general and the High Holy Days in particular provide us to unify that attention, to focus on the essential.

We begin these days with the symbol of the ram’s horn.  The shofar blasts serve to awaken us not only to the tasks at hand, but more importantly to the essential work of knowing ourselves.  Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi zichrono livracha taught:  Maimonides speaks of the shofar as an awakener.  We want to awaken to a higher awareness that gives us a perspective from which we can see the flaws in the routines of life and how they can be improved.  The word shofar can be derived from leshaper, fixing or improving.  Shapr ma’asehem - repair our deeds:  Shofarot encourages us to repair our deeds.  The awareness provided by the shofar blast enhances our experience of this reflective day.  What do we need to open not just our eyes, but the religious vision Wolpe speaks of, in order to discover what matters.  These blasts awaken, they are the alarm clock of the year.  And if you are like me, the snooze buttons  are tempting, but we have three rounds of shofar blasts to ensure this opening act is heard…to ensure it is experienced. 

Once awake, and following this opening act of the Holy Days, we embark together, carrying all the clutter, the emptiness that fills our lives, the countless distractions, in the form of bread crumbs at Tashlich.  The symbolism of this act is profound as it begins these intermediate days before Yom Kippur.  When we identify the essential, when we shed light where it is dark, we can begin to focus on what we can accomplish - to know we can do a lot.

As the crescendo of these Holy Days rings with the sounds of Kol Nidre, we declare our utmost intention to live to our expectations of ourselves.  Yom Kippur leads us on a tour of our own mortality.  It is the clearest illustration that, no we cannot do it all.  The Day of Atonement’s power is not held in this valley, but in the realization of the life we are gifted.  To recognize that we must account for our life by living a life focused on what matters, what must matter to us.  When that day comes, we are engaged so deeply in the work of our individual lives, yet we conclude with a profound uttering of Psalm 118 with a twist.  We evolve the words to become:  Pitchu Lanu Sha’arei Tzedek - Open for US the Gates of Righteousness.  In this petition for the gates to be open, it is our desire to focus our vision on the life ahead, to see what is possible by knowing what matters.  It becomes a profound declaration that we account for our lives, that we enter the New Year collectively.  Open for US, the gates of righteousness.

In combating the forces around us that compete for our attention, in striving to focus and to unify our continuous partial attention it becomes the people around us that share this life with us, that inhabit the world around us not alongside, but together.   

Multi-tasking has become a quality to aim for, yet in learning more about multi-tasking, it is in fact a term from computer science and technology…not for humanity….  What we learn on this day, and must turn our attention to, is that perhaps we leave the multi-tasking and the immediate desire to do it all to the iPhones, computers and tablets.  That we unite our continuous partial attention, using the tools of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the days in between to recognize while we can’t do it all, we sure can do a lot….with the right energy, priority and focus.

The High Holidays give us the time to learn and practice how to discover and own the times when we need to single-task, to focus.  Multitasking will continue and always be part of our lives, yet let us use this time to hone our skills for focusing, for recognizing that while we cannot do it all, we CAN do a lot….

May we hear the blasts of the shofar and be ready.  May we sift the deeds and experiences of the past year and find clarity, discover focus.  And may we be ready to stand together at the conclusion of the Days of Awe focused, ready to single-task and discover just how much we can accomplish.

Shanah Tovah U’Mitukah,
Rabbi Evon