On Yom Kippur we talk about making amends for our past misdeeds. For many people, thinking about the past is a catalyst for guilt. “I am okay now but I feel guilty about my past,” is something I have heard often. But this is a mistaken thought because guilt causes despair; it destroys, prevents rehabilitation, […]
Messages from September 2017
This week’s Parsha contains the poetic parting words of Moses: Listen heavens and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth! (32:1) This verse begins Moses’ farewell song to the People by calling upon the heaven and earth to be witnesses to what he will be saying. He asks the people […]
A High Holidays Business Model I once read a story that I suspect is apocryphal but nevertheless contains a pertinent message for the High Holidays. It took place in Russia one hundred years ago. Two men who had been classmates and close friends in their small town’s Jewish school saw each other in […]
See–I have placed before you today life and good, death and evil… I invoke the heavens and earth today to bear witness against you. I have placed life and death before you, blessing and curse; and you shall choose life, so that you may live; you and your offspring. (Deuteronomy 30:15-19) Rashi explains how heaven […]
The following dialogue is from the film Manhattan: Yale: You are so self-righteous, you know. I mean we’re just people. We’re just human beings, you know? You think you’re God. Isaac: I . . . I gotta model myself after someone. Can one mode oneself after G-d? According to classical Jewish wisdom, the answer is […]
In 2012 the wonderful book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg was a trailblazer in explaining how habits that we might not even realize we have can dictate our lives. Habits emerge without our permission and are so powerful because they create neurological cravings, […]