Take it with you PART TWO sort of Our most recent "today" has been this past more than a month. It started in Elul, intensified in the Slichot week before Rosh HaShana, peaked on Rosh HaShana itself, continued through Aseret Y'mei T'shuva and Erev Yom Kippur, peaked again on Yom Kippur, continued in a different way during the hectic days of preparation for Chag, peaked yet again during Sukkot with its powerful mitzvot of Sukka and the Arbaa Minim, peaked even higher (do not be off-put by the repeated use of the word "peaked"; we are dealing with mountains of spiritual Himalayan pro- portion) on Hoshana Rabba and culminated in Simchat Torah. With a good Baal T'fila to put you in the mood, Slichot can be very inspiring. Almost easy to sanctify oneself with that experience. But the "tomorrow" is the challenge. Every single weekday, three times a day, we ask G-d to help bring us back to His Torah, to bring us closer to His service, and help us do T'shuva. The vidui of Slichot and certainly of Yom Kippur is conducive to serious introspection and hopefully puts us firmly on the pathways of T'shuva. Every day we say S'LACH LANU AVINU KI CHATANU, M'CHAL LANU MALKEINU KI FASHANU. We ask G-d to forgive us. We call Him AVINU MALKEINU every day. Not just with the Aron open and the congregation emotionally singing its petitions to G-d. Everyday. Not just HAYOM, but MACHAR. On Yom Kippur, we included in our davening to awe-inspiring (difficult not to keep repeating this phrase too) SEDER AVODA, the order of service of the Kohein Gadol on Yom Kippur. But everyday of the year, we have Korbanot in the davening in which we read about the Kohanim washing their hands and feet before Avoda, about the daily T'midim, about the Ketoret. And our washing of the hands ritually each morning, our Shacharit and Mincha, these are part of our Seder Avoda, our service of G-d, every single day of our lives. All of the "tomorrow", when we are challenged to sanctify ourselves with only the memory of the dramatic and emotional setting of the Yamim Nora'im. That's our real challenge. We proclaim, over and over again, with words and with the sound of the Shofar, that G-d is King, our King. And we do this every single time we make a bracha before and after eating. Picture the chazan of RH and YK as he proclaims the word HAMELECH. Now realize that each of us proclaims G-d's Kingship before even a sip of water. That simple nine-word bracha is our restatement of belief that G-d is the source of all Blessing, that He is G-d, our G-d, that He is King of the Universe, and that everything that exists - everything - came into existence by His Divine Decree. Did you have a special, joyous religious experience holding the Four Species during Sukkot and making the AL NETILAT LULAV bracha before waving them in the six directions, symbolic of G-d's Omnipresence. And what about the other AL NETILAT bracha? How many times do we say AL NETILAT YADAYIM in the course of a day, week, year? Borrow some of that feeling for the special mitzvot of Sukkot and apply it to the everyday, mundane, take-them-for-granted mitzvot. No mitzva should be so casual and routine as to result in our missing the message of "G-d, Who has sanctified us with His mitzvot, and commanded us..." Enjoy living in the Sukka? We have the challenge of enjoying living in G-d's world (and especially in His special place - Eretz Yisrael) everyday. Hallel. Beautiful (and inspiring) song of praises to G-d. 21 times a year (more or less) for the whole Hallel (another 20 or more of the skipping version). Every day, three times a day, we say "Every day I will bless you; and I will praise your name for ever and ever." (It's one of the p'sukim of Ashrei.) So too, we say thrice daily, "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations." Let the way we express these ideas on special occasions enhance the way we say them all the time. Today and tomorrow. Joyous dancing with the Torah on Simchat Torah is the "sanctify them today" for the 22nd of Tishrei. Dancing with Torah learning and observance is the "and tomorrow" part of our daily Simchat Torah. Every single day, we must rejoice that "He chose us from among all the nations and gave us His Torah". And what helps us take the feelings, emotions, moods (and commitments) of the past month with us throughout the whole year? Shabbat B'reishit. Its message is truly that there is the potential for a clean-slate new beginning for each of us as individuals and for us as Klal Yisrael. As the popular saying goes: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. But today is also the tomorrow that G-d wants us to continue to strive towards holiness, even without the tremendous help of the powerful holy days of Tishrei. All we need to do is "take it with us". [The Parshat B'reishit Homepage]
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