Shabbat Message from Rabbi Forman - 9/14/06

Selichot - literally: forgivenesses - is the name of the service traditionally held at midnight on the Saturday before Rosh Hashanah. Often this service features diminished lighting and solemn music to imbue a sense of the upcoming drama of the High Holydays. Selichot repeats a phrase that readies us for the New Year: "Hasheveinu Adonai,
v'Nashuva -- Renew us, O God, and we shall be renewed."
If only it were that easy. To show up, read a few prayers from a book and express a desire to change is not quite how transformation really occurs - despite the insistence of the Selichot liturgy. Intention, as a recent TV commercial brilliantly relates, is not really enough. Neither is lip-service. Acknowledging the need to change parts of our behavior is difficult enough without the added burden of actually changing! Ah, the challenges of being human . . . .

So what are we to do? Are the words of our tradition useless? Hardly. They can instill in us a vision of our highest aims. That is the primary purpose of all worship. The words of prayer speak of our highest image of ourselves.

On this Shabbat, as the Jewish world readies itself for a New Year, we might take a few moments to consider the year that is about to end. What were its high points? How did we excel at the tasks we value most? And where might we have bettered ourselves? Such introspection is not easy. This Shabbat of Selichot, of forgivenesses, is a
wonderful occasion to begin looking within - not merely encouraging others in our lives to forgive us our failings, but recognizing that we are at once imperfect and blessings to all of them.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Joseph M. Forman