Hear Our Voice

Elul is a time for self-reflection.  

Have you been thinking that maybe you need to do some work on yourself?

Do you have a trustworthy loved one who has offered this suggestion?

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are around the corner with a special delivery – Your very own Cheshbon Hanefesh, The Accounting of Your Soul.  This Jewish wisdom tradition imagines each of us receiving the record of our deeds from the preceding year – receipts for “purchases,” outstanding “debts,” “write-offs,” “loss leaders” – and any other accounting type metaphor imagining our soul as the client whose books need auditing.  

And in one of the most important prayers of both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur mornings, Unetaneh Tokef, we perceive God as the ultimate accountant  

And here is the truth of this day:

You are judge and plaintiff, counselor and witness.

You inscribe and seal. You record and recount.

You remember all that we have forgotten.

And when You open the Book of Memories,

it speaks for itself —

for every human hand leaves its mark,

an imprint like no other.

However, and here is my caveat, God is much more like our personal accountant who makes sure we’ve completed all the necessary forms, and who makes sure we don’t leave anything off our “balance sheet,” but that ultimately, this audit is upon us to report honestly…or not.

This is the soulful work of the High Holy days.  Please join me starting next Thursday evening via Zoom for the Elul Project.  Bring a notebook, a pen, and your soulful soul, and we’ll get to work.  Your work, your writing, your contemplation will be welcome to be as private as you wish it to be.  

Please accept this invitation to learn and discover, how the High Holy days can be a powerful path for you for self-discovery. 

Thursdays, August 24, August 31, September 7 from 7 pm - 8 pm. Please click HERE to request the Zoom link. 

Rabbi Scott