Rosh Hashana is in the books.
That actually means more than what one might think.
In the books is a colloquial expression which means
“it has been officially recorded or completed”.
But on Rosh Hashana there were books opened that have not been closed yet.
We are still in the middle of the story.
The Talmud teaches us that on Rosh Hashana there are books opened-the Book of Life for those who are completely righteous, the Book of Death for those who have been judged as completed wicked and the Middle Book - for those in the middle.
Neither here nor there.
We all want to be inscribed in the Book of Life.
The good news is that the story is still a work in progress.
Rosh Hashana is the beginning of the New Year. We have the opportunity to begin afresh and choose the path forward.
Will we stay stuck in old bad habits or do we want to take a new path.
So Rosh Hashana is in fact an opportunity, it is an assessment of what we want for ourselves in the coming year.
We are therefore gifted with this time period of the Ten Days of Repentance which lead up to Yom Kippur to continue the process.
Mrs. Chani Juravel, a popular lecturer and therapist shared the following thoughts to help concretize this process.
She shared that when she was at the beginning of her career she had a very scary supervisor. The woman was intimidating and although Mrs. Juravel wanted to share her mistakes and challenges with this supervisor in order to improve at her craft, it was difficult. Nonetheless she persevered and reviewed her missteps with the supervisor.
On one occasion when there was another error, the supervisor asked Mrs. Juravel what she was going to do with all these “mess ups”?
Chani thought perhaps the message was she should quit as she was faltering.

That was not at all what the supervisor was intimating.
Instead, she explained that these missteps were precious opportunities to use as stepping stones for better practice in the future.
She even went so far as to ask Chani if she had a notebook to record all the lessons in order to to do better.
What a refreshing perspective to view and then review mistakes and see them as precious guideposts towards improvement!!
Mrs. Juravel likens it to the sounds of the Shofar we just heard.
The Tekia blast is long and smooth reminding us of the times we are pure, doing it all right.
Then come the shevarim blasts, which are broken sounds, that is where we have faltered and made mistakes. That leads us to the Teruah sounds, little staccato blasts which is the sound of my beating myself up over all the mistakes made.
If we stay there at the Terua, we are like Mrs. Juravel who felt she should just confess all her mistakes and then quit, obviously not destined to be a good therapist.
But after that breakup, the mess ups, the beating the self up, comes the i Tekia Gedolah, the pure, smooth blast which goes on and on and takes your breath away with the purity of its call.
Chani concludes by saying Gd doesn’t stay in that broken place. He moves on, so to speak, seeing us as evolved people who can learn valuable lessons from our mistakes to return even better than before.
My husband blows the Shofar at our service.
It’s harder than it looks! The first day he did a wonderful job, just about perfect.
The second day was a little more difficult. There are 100 blasts blown each day with the service concluding with 4 sets of ten blasts each.
In the third set of the four he had a bit of trouble. It took an effort to sound the blasts properly. But when he reached the last set he rebounded and ended on a high note, literally.
After the service was over a congregant approached my husband. He said that although the first day blasts were delivered perfectly, he actually preferred the second day.
Because, he said, “I am struggling and I saw you were struggling and yet you pulled through. That inspired me!”
The Books are open.
Rosh Hashana is “the first day of the rest of your life”
Now we have the time to properly assess ourselves and use our “sins” which is really a missing of the mark, to investigate those things that we have messed up, internalize them, even write them in a notebook and use the valuable tools to repair.
As Chani says, that assessment will help us to believe in ourselves as much as Gd believes in us.
That is the rest of the story.
Wishing each and everyone of you a Gmar Chatima Tova.
That is the greeting we share after Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur. It translates to
“a good final sealing” a blessing that we be sealed in the Book of Life.
If at any point in this year I have not extended you the proper courtesy or have in any way hurt you, I beg your forgiveness. And in the spirit of the lesson above, I would be deeply appreciative to hear privately from anyone I have unintentionally distressed so I can learn a valuable lesson and repair.
Gmar Chatima Tova!
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!