Oh, my goodness, Rabbi Sommer. Understanding. That strikes home for me.

One of the central tenets of Judaism is the concept of Beenah, understanding. In fact, it is so important that one of the major Hassidic streams, Chabad Lubavitch, is partly named after it. The name Chabad is actually an acronym for Chochmah (Wisdom), Beenah (Understanding) and Da’at (Knowledge).

I have always been fascinated by understanding things, whether it’s a an arcane mathematical function (I will never forget the moment, in my fourth year of university, when I suddenly understood what a Green function was for, and it was much less exciting than I thought) or why people do things the way they do. It’s one of the main reasons I am drawn to being a coach – helping people understand themselves looks like a very exciting job, to me, although also as scary as all get out. For one thing, if people understand themselves and don’t like what they see, will they blame me?

When I first started entertaining the idea of working for myself, back in 2005 or so, I took my first cautious steps into a little tutoring business. I found I didn’t like tutoring very much, but I did end up with a name – I called it Beenah Tutoring. I even made business cards with a cute little owl on them, to demonstrate how much understanding I had.

The name Beenah has gone through a few more iterations (Beenah Communications, Beenah Enterprises …), and now I’m at a crossroads. Is the next step Beenah Coaching? Or should I call it something else entirely? Is it time to bid adieu to my ideal of understanding, at least insofar as the name of the business is concerned? Maybe it’s time to go to Hadass Eviatar – Coach? Or maybe something completely different?

It’s a difficult and important choice, naming a business. So I’m calling on you, my dear friends and readers. I realise this doesn’t have much to do with High Holy Days, at least not obviously. But maybe it does, in a more oblique fashion. It is, after all, the choices that we make and the understanding we struggle to achieve that determine what kind of year we will have. This is an important choice in front of me – want to help me make it?