Tomorrow evening, we gather together for what is called Selichot: a night of petitioning God to remember us in this High Holy Day season. Often the days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur feel overwhelming…the amount of people, the pressures that comes with being called the “holiest time” of the year. Certainly Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur gives us the impetus to change our lives. But Selichot feels different. Selichot feels private. Meditative. Contemplative.
If you need a real jump start for change, join us at Sinai Temple, 8:30pm, Saturday night. And as a prelude to the evening, let the words of Rabbi Sidney Greenberg simmer through your soul:
Some Old Truths for the New Year by Rabbi Sidney Greenberg
Others can live without us, but we cannot live without others.
We cannot be happy unless we are useful.
It is great to be loved. It is greater to love.
When we improve ourselves, we make a most vital contribution to the improvement of humanity.
In morals as in mathematics, a straight line is the shortest distance between two points.
When we kill time, we commit an act of partial suicide. We also declare time be an enemy. Time is our most faithful friend.
If we purchase material comfort with the coin of conscience, we have cheated ourselves.
It is no less important to cultivate the ability to forget than it is to develop the power to remember.
The true measure of a man’s size is his ability to make others feel big.
The indispensable requirement for mastering life is mastering ourselves.
We learn to live when we learn to give.
We meet God wherever we serve His creatures.
