From the Cyber Torah Archives

I would like to wish everyone a Lshanah Tova, a Good New Year, and a Gemar Hatimah Tovah, that you should be receive a good sealing in the Book of Life - written for life with value and purpose.

Please note a few changes to the E-mail message for the coming Holy Days. This E-mail will be for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I am mailing it out earlier in the week due to the upcoming Holy Days. In addition, I am planning to mail out one E-mail message for Sukkot, in approximately two weeks. I will resume sending out weekly D'vrei Torah on Thursday with Parashat Noach, the first Shabbat in November.

Habits are hard to break. I have a friend who has been trying to quit smoking for years and years. He was finally successful about eight months ago. Since he quit, he has put on easily twenty pounds. Instead of having a cigarette in his mouth all the time, he has a potato chip or piece of hard candy. He quit smoking, but he is still in the habit of needing something to be in his mouth all the time.

Our Rabbis teach that "Mitzvah gorreret mitzvah; averah gorreret averah" meaning that a good action leads to another good action, while a bad action leads to another bad action. We are creatures of habit. We tend to continue on the path we have set for ourselves, even when that path leads us in unpleasant directions. If we are accustomed to treating people with respect, it becomes second nature. I taught myself to be polite. I used to be somewhat blunt and showed little willingness to shmooze with people. I realized that I was not treating people with dignity and worked hard to change those habits. It took me several years to change. By contrast, I remember a time in my life where I lied to people with regularity. It was hard the first time. It was not hard the tenth time.

Our relationship with God is also affected by our habits. It has been so long now since I violated the Shabbat, that I can not even imagine doing so again. I pray regularly, so that even on days when I do not want to, I have a sense that something is missing from my day. By contrast, before I become observant, I never thought twice about cooking or buying something on Shabbat. That was what I always did.

Teshuvah, repentance, requires us to change our habits. The word literally means "return" - return to God, return to God's way or the mitzvot. Ideally, we should be worried about Teshuvah all year. After all, why is October 11th, Yom Kippur this year, a better time than the 12th to turn towards God and holiness?

The 12th isn't any better than the 11th. Any day we want to turn towards God is a good day to do so. However, by setting aside a special day to think about changing ourselves, we open ourselves up to the possibility of changing our habits. We have to shake ourselves up a little bit in order to see the habits that keep us away from God. A small change makes it possible to imagine a large change. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur challenge our complacency.

..This is precisely the challenge of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Each of us can make a decision to change and thereby begin a process of return to God. Once we make a decision to begin looking for holiness in our lives, for ways of rededicating ourselves to our Creator, we are engaged in a process with its own energy and its own momentum.

For me, the hardest thing about beginning a project is starting. I can find all sorts of reasons not to start - I want to exercise, play with my son, eat, all kinds of activities. Once I start, however, I find that I can get the work done. The project, even when it is difficult and time consuming, has its own momentum.

Even when we feel empty and know that religion is an avenue to restoring meaning and purpose in our lives we imagine that it will be so difficult to change our habits. As a result, we do not try. Teshuvah is just like starting any project. Just as the hardest part of any project is beginning, so also the hardest part of Teshuvah is starting.