Today's word is Dare. Of course, as soon as I see that word, I think of Dr. Brené Brown, whose book Daring Greatly has become a staple in the bookcases of personal growth junkies like me. I even wrote about her last year. The gist of the book is the importance of vulnerability - of … Continue reading #BlogElul 22: Dare
Tag: Rabbi Phyllis Sommer
#BlogElul 21: Change
Change. Oh, there's so much change going on. This year has been quite the year in that regard. My husband was laid off/retired from his position as a senior scientist with the federal government after two years of hell, and started his own engineering consulting company. My oldest son graduated high school and started university. … Continue reading #BlogElul 21: Change
#BlogElul 20: Judge
Yom Kippur is the Day of Judgement, when we expect all of our sins to come home to roost. Here is what I wrote about it last year. There's lots of scary imagery in the liturgy about this - the King seated on the Throne of Judgement, holding the scales between justice and mercy. On … Continue reading #BlogElul 20: Judge
#BlogElul 19: Ask
The Ask is the hard part. It's easy to tell people about the benefits of your lovely thing, to show them how much it has helped you, to be excited about how much it can help them. But then you have to ask them to put money on the table, and many of us, including … Continue reading #BlogElul 19: Ask
#BlogElul 18: Pray
Today's word is Pray. Last year I wrote about how I wasn't sure whom I was speaking to when I prayed, but that it really doesn't matter. I even mentioned Pascal's Wager. I think this takes us back to Einstein's question whether the Universe is a friendly place. Right now in shul we are reading … Continue reading #BlogElul 18: Pray
#BlogElul 16: Understand
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 … Continue reading #BlogElul 16: Understand
#BlogElul 17: Awaken
Yesterday I listened to my son practise his shofar blowing for the High Holy Days. Traditionally, the shofar is blown 100 times on each day of Rosh HaShanah, except on Shabbat. We do not blow the shofar on Yom Kippur itself, but at the end of it, after the gates have symbolically closed, we blow … Continue reading #BlogElul 17: Awaken
#BlogElul 15: Learn
Oh my, today's word is Learn. And am I ever learning these days! I'm learning how to get out there and ask people for things. I asked the two people who are leading Shacharit upstairs on Rosh HaShanah to switch so that one of them could very graciously come down and fix my second-day-of-Rosh-HaShanah problem. … Continue reading #BlogElul 15: Learn
#BlogElul 13: Forgive
I think it is very apropos that Rabbi Sommer is talking about forgiveness here. Of course I immediately thought about Alexander Pope's aphorism "To err is human, to forgive, divine". This connects to my #BlogElul post on the subject from 2012. I was talking about G-d forgiving the Israelites for the sin of the twelve … Continue reading #BlogElul 13: Forgive
#BlogElul 12: Trust
Oooh, trust today. Nice one. Trust is a very interesting concept. What do we mean by trust? I'm reminded of those stupid icebreaker games where a person has to let themselves fall and be caught by the people around them. It's scary as hell to do things that way, because you never know when somebody … Continue reading #BlogElul 12: Trust