Preparing For The Holiday

By Jo Strausz Rosen

In preparation for the New Year, 5783, I wish to reaffirm the belief in my own power, with gratitude to The One for keeping me going. How many of us are struggling to simply get up and get dressed in the morning and find ourselves lingering in loneliness on the sidelines? How many of us are saying “No, I can’t” to an invitation, after committing to the “Yes I will?” How many are falling back on old habits and giving in to insecurities and fears? Let’s take this time to make a fresh start.

Consider Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s wisdom– “Hang a bell in your car, perhaps on the rearview mirror, so that it rings when you hit a bump in the road. Or attach the bell to a door in your house that you often walk through. Choose a short phrase to say when you hear the bell that reminds you there’s more to this moment than getting on with your next task. Allow the bell and the phrase you choose to shift you for a moment out of your daily routine, and into gratitude and awareness of the greater picture.”  What will your phrase be? My phrase is “Thank you Gd.”

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov offered some timeless wisdom:

“Teach me, dear Gd,
To make a fresh start.
To break yesterday’s patterns.
To stop telling myself
I can’t
When I can,
I’m not –
When I am,
I’m stuck –
When I’m eminently free.

Help me find the way
To that sacred sanctuary within myself,
To that precious center of my existence.

Help me discover
my place in the world –
That space which belongs
unconditionally to me.”

In loving memory of all who came before us, let us find our way back to one another and in doing so, make our world a place for justice and peace.

Shabbat Shalom