Dear Friends,
The great Jewish comedian Sam Levenson, describing his family’s Jewish American experience said, “My folks were immigrants who bought the legend that American streets were paved with gold. When my father arrived he discovered three things:
1. The streets were not paved with gold.
2. The streets were not even paved!
3. He was the one expected to do the paving!”
This is a timely metaphor for our emotional development. In youth’s hopeful dawn, we feel noble stirrings within and dream of realizing them on a global scale. And yet, so often as the years tick by, dreams slip away and we fall into the abyss of mediocrity where the temptation may be just to give up. As 19th century philosopher Thoreau once observed, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
There comes a time of honest self-reckoning, possibly your very own ‘Aha moment', when we must take stock of unfulfilled dreams and realize that we don’t have to give up. Hard work is required to live life to its maximum potential, by improving and “paving” our spiritual and physical well-being.
I believe this truth is reflected in the daily blasts of the shofar, that we blow in preparation for Rosh Hashanah which started today.
Several centuries ago, the renowned Rabbi Horowitz (known as the ‘Shelah'), once brilliantly explained how the sound of the Shofar is a parable of life: The Shofar blasts begin and end with a tekiah — a whole note, yet in between are the shevarim and teruah — broken notes.
We are gifted at birth with magnificent potential. Along the winding path of life, via mistakes, weakness, pain, failure and more, we may become shevarim, (temporarily) broken. Yet, we can spiritually become whole again and commit to self-improvement.
During the month of Elul, the shofar acts as our spiritual alarm clock. We wake up! Step up! And increase our number of mitzvot each day. You, and you alone, hold the power to shape your life’s path with a destiny to “pave” and build a beautiful road ahead.
Wishing you a month filled with strength and meaning.
Rabbi Fishel & Ettie Zaklos
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