I think we spend much of our life battling ourselves. Our lower drives push and pull us in ways that harm us and the people around us. And it hurts – sometimes a lot. In that vein, we all have dreams. We dream that one day we will be the person who is unending in patience and compassion; someone who never gets angry and is only understanding; someone who has achieved perfect balance.
We dream and we dream big, “one day” we say I will become all of these things … Today the month of Elul begins, the month preceding Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Usually, people consider this a time where we focus on “sins”. More accurately, the Torah has created a whole holiday season so that, that “one day” that we dreamed of – is today.
It’s a time where we ask ourselves in earnest “Who am I?” “What do I want from life?” It’s a time of vision and hope, where we labor to become the person who we dream of. It’s a time where we set aside the tumultuous preoccupations of life and we meet ourselves in the deepest way.
2021