With appreciation to Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
For a New Beginning
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
John O’Donohue
During the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we are commanded to release that which occurred during the past year. We continue to remember it in the back of our mind-after all, it happened and there might be lessons to learn from it. Yet at the same time we let go of it.
Rabbi Natan of Nemirov, student of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, wrote “The essence of the tikkun (spiritual repair we undertake on Rosh Hashanah) is that each year we must set aside the mochin (mind) of the past and begin anew. For every single day our minds are renewed, in the aspect of ‘They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.’[1] All the more so on Rosh HaShanah, which is the start of the year, when our entire request is ‘Renew for us a good year,’ meaning that we should merit a year that is completely new. For each year begins an entirely new repair.”[2]
What a challenge it is to begin anew with a clean slate. How can one let go of the past year’s mistakes, insults and challenges and start over? This is easier said than done, yet when we struggle with it we can recognize that we are creatures made in the image of God. Just as it says about God המחדש בטובו בכל-יום תמיד מעשה בראשית“God renews out of his lovingkindness every day the acts of creation”[3] so too should we feel that sense of renewal. Rabbi Natan continues “So too must each of us take on this aspect: to conclude and to begin-to finish, complete, and set aside all that has passed, and to begin now anew.”[4] Rabbi Natan says this is true “even if we are as we are,”[5] meaning that we continue to do the same sins over and over again, we must dismiss and forget from our minds all that has passed. Having beginner’s mind is a key lesson that we can strive to achieve today. After all it is Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of Return, and we should return to being the best version of ourselves. As likely first appeared in a graduation speech at Rutgers Preparatory School in 1993, “yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery, today’s a gift, that’s why they call it the present.”[6]
On this Shabbat Shuvah, may we strive to let go of past missteps and do our best to focus on the impact we can make right here, right now. As Rabbi Sam Feinsmith, whose teaching is the inspiration for this sermon,[7] said in his song on Gevurah, having wise boundaries, “I am loving, firm, courageous, full of might, Not uttering a single slight. I say no to harm and yes to standing strong In my love discerning right from wrong.” May we strive to release all the tension caused by past hurts and slights, may we recognize that we are in a new year with infinite potential and may we have resolve as we set our course for New Year 5787.
She Let Go
by Safire Rose
She let go.
She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.
She let go of the fear.
She let go of the judgments.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.
She let go of the committee of indecision within her.
She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.
Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask anyone for advice.
She didn’t read a book on how to let go.
She didn’t search the scriptures.
She just let go.
She let go of all of the memories that held her back.
She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.
She just let go..
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the prayer line.
She didn’t utter one word.
She just let go.
No one was around when it happened.
There was no applause or congratulations.
No one thanked her or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.
Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.
There was no effort.
There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.
It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her.
And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…
[1] Lamentations 3:23
[2] Excerpted from Likkutei Halakhot, Yoreh De’ah, Hilkhot Sefer Torah 4:6-9
[3] Siddur
[4] Likkutei Halakhot, ibid.
[5] Ibid
[6] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/07/26/past-history/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
[7] The Shofar Project 5786 Waking Up for a New Year Week Three: Zikhronot: Remembering and Releasing.
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