Rabbi Yitzchok of Nadvorna was once sitting and chatting with a member of his community just a few days before Rosh Hashanah. Suddenly the man looked at his watch, stood up, and said, “Pardon me Rabbi, I have to go!”
Rabbi Yitzchok asked him, “Where are you rushing off to?” The man said, “As you know Rabbi, I am the shaliach tzibor (worship leader) for the Rosh Hashanah services and I need to go over the machzor (High Holy Day prayer book) and make sure everything is in order.” The rabbi said to him: “The machzor is in perfect order. Better to focus on making sure that your affairs are in order as well!”
That’s the work of these days leading up to the New Year: We prepare ourselves to come before God as individuals and as a community in humility and penitence. We perform cheshbon hanefesh (an accounting of our souls) honestly, looking at ourselves in the mirror and confronting the ugliness (and the beauty) inside. We apologize to those we have harmed. We make restitution wherever possible. We put our affairs in order so that we might be worthy of forgiveness.
There is much work to be done. I look forward to being with you in the days to come, in-person and online, as we welcome the New Year of 5783 together.
May it be a year of health, goodness, blessing, and peace for each and every one of us, for our community, our nation, all Israel, and all the world.
Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah,
Rabbi Yoshi
