Engaging w/ Elul August 30, 2013
This Elul stuff is pretty hard. Finding the right way, or at least the right way for right now, to engage in this deep introspection keeps leading me down paths that are not my own. What I mean is that I consider an action, a word shared, an action not done that should have been done and its almost always in comparison to others. How do I, how does one, only reflect on him or herself? The spiritual curriculum of taking an accounting of our soul must be authentic to oneself. It must be the unique checklist for the person you want to, not better: can be or become.
Yet, I am not sure what the place is for reflection through the lens of the lives of others. There must be a communal component.
May this final Shabbat, the final day before Slichot bring us closer to that fine balance between reflecting ourselves against our best selves and the exemplary parts of others.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Evon
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Engaging w/ Elul August 28, 2013
As Caleb, my almost 13 month old son, becomes more and more mobile, faster and faster from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’, Rachel and I have implemented our own language to coordinate. We call it a ‘reset’. It is that moment one he’s playing, we are both keeping a watchful eye, but also partially engaged in something else. One will say to the other, can you do a ‘reset’? And one of us will dutifully and lovingly pick Caleb up and move him to a safer location, just so he can head back in the same direction he intended. It frees us up for a brief moment to accomplish whatever task was at hand.
This time of year, approaching a New Year, I am constantly thinking about this notion of ‘reset’. The idea that the slate of deeds, actions and words can begin again. Yet, I know that we cannot fully reset the time and wash completely away all of those experiences of the past year. We can only improve the quality of our ‘reset’ from year to year if each year is full of better, more positive and healthier deeds, actions and words. For then, the reset is to a higher level each year.
Set your intention today to not just wait for the holy days to ‘reset’, but to make each day an improvement on yesterday.
Make Today a Great Day,
Rabbi Evon
As Caleb, my almost 13 month old son, becomes more and more mobile, faster and faster from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’, Rachel and I have implemented our own language to coordinate. We call it a ‘reset’. It is that moment one he’s playing, we are both keeping a watchful eye, but also partially engaged in something else. One will say to the other, can you do a ‘reset’? And one of us will dutifully and lovingly pick Caleb up and move him to a safer location, just so he can head back in the same direction he intended. It frees us up for a brief moment to accomplish whatever task was at hand.
This time of year, approaching a New Year, I am constantly thinking about this notion of ‘reset’. The idea that the slate of deeds, actions and words can begin again. Yet, I know that we cannot fully reset the time and wash completely away all of those experiences of the past year. We can only improve the quality of our ‘reset’ from year to year if each year is full of better, more positive and healthier deeds, actions and words. For then, the reset is to a higher level each year.
Set your intention today to not just wait for the holy days to ‘reset’, but to make each day an improvement on yesterday.
Make Today a Great Day,
Rabbi Evon
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
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
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Engaging w/ Elul August 25, 2013
Shavua tov! As Shabbat departs and we extinguish the havdalah candle we enter into a kind of darkness. It is the sadness that Shabbat has ended, it is the physical darkness of night and the awareness that our sense of a day different has departed. I cannot help but include in these feelings the reality that all of us in the Carson Valley, Tahoe Basin and Reno are engulfed in smoke, a thick grayness that limits not just our visibility but affects our breathing and mood, for sure. It is with these ideas in mind that I consider the connection to Fall and this season. Elul eases into the High Holy Days over a month. The High Holy Days lead us into the darker time of the year. As the days get shorter, we not only say goodbye to the long days of summer light, but also to the past year. I wonder how the spiritual work of Elul, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are aided by this weaning from long hours of light.
Shavua Tov - To a Great Week,
Rabbi Evon
Shavua tov! As Shabbat departs and we extinguish the havdalah candle we enter into a kind of darkness. It is the sadness that Shabbat has ended, it is the physical darkness of night and the awareness that our sense of a day different has departed. I cannot help but include in these feelings the reality that all of us in the Carson Valley, Tahoe Basin and Reno are engulfed in smoke, a thick grayness that limits not just our visibility but affects our breathing and mood, for sure. It is with these ideas in mind that I consider the connection to Fall and this season. Elul eases into the High Holy Days over a month. The High Holy Days lead us into the darker time of the year. As the days get shorter, we not only say goodbye to the long days of summer light, but also to the past year. I wonder how the spiritual work of Elul, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are aided by this weaning from long hours of light.
Shavua Tov - To a Great Week,
Rabbi Evon
Friday, August 23, 2013
Engaging w/ Elul August 24, 2013
Not so long ago, I joined with some good friends and community members for something we called ‘BBB’, Bikes, Baristas & Bible. We enjoyed a leisurely pedal in North Phoenix, enjoyed coffee at a local favorite - Press, and explored the week’s Torah portion. It was a great way for me to prep a d’var torah (even though I should have been finalizing it by then) and move into Shabbat. One of the great take aways from that time in my life and our many conversations on the importance of Shabbat was about work ethic. My dear friends, and fellow cyclists, Jason Kaller, Dave Taylor and I spent much time discussing how to make Shabbat meaningful in a modern way. We were attempting to find a path towards וינפש (Vayinafash - refreshment and renewal), but in a way that reflected our understanding of our authentic Judaism.
One conclusion we came to was that the rest, the specialness of Shabbat, is only meaningful if we work our tails off the other six days. The contrast of Shabbat from the rest of the week is to what we should aim. To truly set it apart, we must find that difference. Often it comes not just in distinguishing between work and no work, but in the kind of effort(s), the intention behind the output of energies and how they become value added to our lives.
On this final Shabbat before Slichot, the first time we hear the High Holy Day melodies, how can you distinguish Shabbat from the rest of the week? How, in an authentic way to who you are, can you discover, or continue to discover, וינפש (Vayinafash - refreshment and renewal)?
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Evon
Not so long ago, I joined with some good friends and community members for something we called ‘BBB’, Bikes, Baristas & Bible. We enjoyed a leisurely pedal in North Phoenix, enjoyed coffee at a local favorite - Press, and explored the week’s Torah portion. It was a great way for me to prep a d’var torah (even though I should have been finalizing it by then) and move into Shabbat. One of the great take aways from that time in my life and our many conversations on the importance of Shabbat was about work ethic. My dear friends, and fellow cyclists, Jason Kaller, Dave Taylor and I spent much time discussing how to make Shabbat meaningful in a modern way. We were attempting to find a path towards וינפש (Vayinafash - refreshment and renewal), but in a way that reflected our understanding of our authentic Judaism.
One conclusion we came to was that the rest, the specialness of Shabbat, is only meaningful if we work our tails off the other six days. The contrast of Shabbat from the rest of the week is to what we should aim. To truly set it apart, we must find that difference. Often it comes not just in distinguishing between work and no work, but in the kind of effort(s), the intention behind the output of energies and how they become value added to our lives.
On this final Shabbat before Slichot, the first time we hear the High Holy Day melodies, how can you distinguish Shabbat from the rest of the week? How, in an authentic way to who you are, can you discover, or continue to discover, וינפש (Vayinafash - refreshment and renewal)?
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Evon
Engaging w/ Elul August 23, 2013
Preparing for Shabbat is an opportunity. It is the chance to ready oneself for a day apart, a day different. Tonight we enter the second to last Shabbat of 5773. We prepare for that final full week of the month of Elul. As we do this spiritual preparation for the year ahead, how will your hopes, your dreams and your potential be echoed and realized in the coming year? Make that your question for this Shabbat. Ponder it. Use the sanctity, the palace in time (phrase belonging to Abraham Joshua Heschel) to commit yourself to what matters in the year that is just ten days away.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Evon
Preparing for Shabbat is an opportunity. It is the chance to ready oneself for a day apart, a day different. Tonight we enter the second to last Shabbat of 5773. We prepare for that final full week of the month of Elul. As we do this spiritual preparation for the year ahead, how will your hopes, your dreams and your potential be echoed and realized in the coming year? Make that your question for this Shabbat. Ponder it. Use the sanctity, the palace in time (phrase belonging to Abraham Joshua Heschel) to commit yourself to what matters in the year that is just ten days away.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Evon
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Engaging w/ Elul August 22, 2013
An immoral society betrays humanity because it betrays the basis for humanity, which is memory. An immoral society deals with memory as some politicians deal with politics. A moral society is committed to memory: I believe in memory. The Greek word althea means Truth, things that cannot be forgotten. I believe in those things that cannot be forgotten and because of that, so much in my work deals with memory... What do all my books have in common? A commitment to memory.
"Building a Moral Society", Chamberlin Lecture at Lewis & Clark College (1995)
– Elie Wiesel
This season of awe and repentance urges us to understand memory. It forces us to use this tool to look back at the past year and recall, what we are able to, to be honest with those memories. It can be challenging, especially for hard or difficult memories. Yet, it is necessary work, for we cannot become closer to our potential if we do not engage in memory, even the painful ones.
I often refer to Jewish history as memory. Yes, we have a great textual tradition that reminds us the path our people has taken. We have an amazing tradition of telling stories and passing on traditions. Yet, once it becomes passed from one generation to the next, told from one to another, isn’t it memory and no longer history?
Make Today a Great Day,
Rabbi Evon
An immoral society betrays humanity because it betrays the basis for humanity, which is memory. An immoral society deals with memory as some politicians deal with politics. A moral society is committed to memory: I believe in memory. The Greek word althea means Truth, things that cannot be forgotten. I believe in those things that cannot be forgotten and because of that, so much in my work deals with memory... What do all my books have in common? A commitment to memory.
"Building a Moral Society", Chamberlin Lecture at Lewis & Clark College (1995)
– Elie Wiesel
This season of awe and repentance urges us to understand memory. It forces us to use this tool to look back at the past year and recall, what we are able to, to be honest with those memories. It can be challenging, especially for hard or difficult memories. Yet, it is necessary work, for we cannot become closer to our potential if we do not engage in memory, even the painful ones.
I often refer to Jewish history as memory. Yes, we have a great textual tradition that reminds us the path our people has taken. We have an amazing tradition of telling stories and passing on traditions. Yet, once it becomes passed from one generation to the next, told from one to another, isn’t it memory and no longer history?
Make Today a Great Day,
Rabbi Evon
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