“Seek God while you may find the Divine; call out while God is near. Forsake the paths of wickedness; dismiss iniquity from your mind. Turn to the Source of compassion, to our God, who is always prepared to forgive.”
—Isaiah 55:6-7
Today is the 20th of Elul; 10 days remain before Rosh Hashanah. If the 10 days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur represent aseret y’mai t’shuvah—10 days to seek atonement for our transgressions through repentance—then perhaps these last days of Elul prior to Rosh Hashanah represent an opportunity to remind ourselves of our fitness for the task that lay ahead.
Despite our errors or shortcomings, our tradition continually reminds us that mercy remains abundant for those who earnestly seek it. The message of reassurance delivered by the prophets and other Jewish texts serve to remind us that change is always possible, but only if we wish it.
Regardless of the ways in which we may have failed ourselves, our loved ones, or our community in the past year … whether our mistakes were new or as old and recurring as we may remember … we need not remain trapped in the confines of our prior choices. Rather, we can choose anew, and in so doing, return in love to the Source of love and compassion.
—Rabbi Josh Knobel