Rosh Hashanah is in less than two weeks and I don’t really know what to do with that. It’s been so many months without structure, I don’t have that “new school year” adrenaline rush that usually revs me up for the Yomim Noraim. I was reviewing previous Rosh Hashanah posts and it hit me that each year when I …
Every year before Rosh Hashanah, it helps me to remind myself that it’s about crowning Hashem King, not about shopping for my desires in the coming year. Crowning Him means that I understand He is King of the world, in a grand sense, but also King over me, in a personal sense, my outer and inner worlds and all the …
I’m going through an exercise from Rabbi Nivin’s Elul workshop that’s been interesting and helpful. It’s a year-in-review writing exercise that covers different areas of your life. Basically, you go through different topics and write about what worked and didn’t work this year. The idea is to scan backwards over the past year and just write whatever comes to mind, …
It’s Elul. Wow. I’m signed up for two personal development courses for Elul. The first is Rabbi Aryeh Nivin’s Elul Chaburah, which is a short series of classes on taking stock and setting goals for the coming year. I actually did this Elul course three years ago and it was incredible. It costs $1 (but you have to cancel …
Sunday night is Rosh Hashanah. The beginning of a new year. New means new. 5778 is ending. It carried its blessings, it carried its learning experiences, it carried its challenges. And it no longer is. It was. Close that book and put it on the shelf. When you are in shul, remember a time when you could see …
Sometimes if it feels as if you’re davening and davening and nothing’s changing. There was a period this year when I was so sure my yeshua had to be just around the corner, I had been davening with a lot of intensity, and feeling like maybe there was a breakthrough. But nothing changed, as far as I could see from …
The start of a new year is an especially good time to open a notebook and start journaling. Even if writing was never your thing, just putting pen to paper and diving right in will help you access wisdom and insight and get to know yourself better. Journaling has been a tremendous game changer for me and I want everyone …
I’ve been thinking about last week’s post, about choosing one goal for this time of year and really focusing on reaching it. I’m trying to work on stretching myself to think about others, especially my family. It’s easy for me to stay holed up in my bedroom, or out in my car, keeping busy with my own thing. Especially since …
It’s good to be back here! I’m still feeling foggy and jet-lagged but I wanted to check in. A friend and I were in Europe and E”Y for about two weeks. One of the places we went to was Barcelona…and we were there, on Las Ramblas, the day before the terror attack. I’ve never been so shaken by a headline… …
