Dear Friend
I do not use the word "Friend" trivially. I feel so close to you even though in many cases our contact is merely digital. For some time now you have been reading and learning some of my innermost thoughts and ideas; this brings people closer. I feel comfortable sharing them with you in ways that friends share thoughts and ideas. I have also had some two-way communication with many of you and that has been very meaningful to me. Often without knowing it, you stimulate my thinking and facilitate new ideas as I imagine you on the receiving end of a shiur or essay. Thank you for honoring me with your continued interest, learning, and financial support.
On Rosh Hashanah we take a break from Selichot. Rosh Hashanah is not about begging for forgiveness. Begging for forgiveness focuses on the past whereas Rosh Hashanah focuses on the future. Rosh does not mean beginning; it means much more than that. Rosh Hashanah means the Head of the Year. The head is the seat of thought, of intellect, of purpose and of vision. Rosh Hashanah is the Head, the quality of whose thinking will determine the direction and quality of the entire year.
You create your whole year on Rosh Hashanah. You apply your mind (Rosh) to envisioning the future you really crave. In this process do not limit yourself. Think big. Do not limit yourself by your past, by your disappointments and by one of the tens of thousands of negative, critical messages your mind communicates to you every day of your life. Your future knows no limits except the limits you impose on it by the fear and timidness to envision boldly. Envision your future in detail, including color, feeling, smell and sound. Picture every detail of the future you want. Your family, spiritual heights, learning, finances, home, and every thing that goes with them. Feel what it would be like to live inside the painting you have created of your envisioned future. Whenever your mind is pulled back into the past, into negativity and thoughts of failure, gently bring it back to your beautiful picture of the future you are creating.
Only you can create the blueprint of your future, Hashem makes it happen but He doesn’t create it without your help. Too often we leave Hashem to create our futures and then we over-exert ourselves to try to make things happen. Try it the other way around: you create your own future, and leave Hashem to help you make it happen! Bederech She’Adam Rotzeh Leileich, molichim otto("Hashem leads a person in the way he or she truly wants to go"). You have to want to go places for Hashem to lead you there. Determining the places you want to go this year, is your Avodah on Rosh Hashanah.
What a gift Rosh Hashanah is to us! We can take a step back, and irrespective of what the past has been, we can, like the artist of our lives, paint a new, exhilarating, inspirational picture of the future we crave. That picture becomes the beacon of our lives in the coming year. We will make our choices against the backdrop of that picture. We will resolve our lives dilemmas by referring to that picture. We will measure our progress by how much closer we travel toward the fulfillment of that picture. And also, we will be mindful of Hashem’s daily miracles as we watch Him hold our hand and lead us to where we really want to go. This is the key: "really want to go." Our vision has to be something we passionately want and for which we are willing to make sacrifice.
The time for repairing the past so that it doesn’t hold you back, the time for Teshuvah, is in the days following the creation of your vision on Rosh Hashanah. That time is the Asserret Yemei Teshuvahculminating in Yom Kippur. What a gift Yom Kippur is! Instead of limiting our future with the inadequacies of our pasts, Yom Kippur allows us to realign our past with our newly crafted future. What a miracle! This is why Rosh Hashanah must precede Yom Kippur.
Having painted our picture of the future we may feel a degree of inadequacy as we compare our new vision of the future with the person we are today and the life we have led until today. We may be overcome with despair as we consider the gap between who we are and who we crave to be. Asseret Yemei Teshuva and Yom Kippurare the gift that allows us to repattern the past in ways that make it support our new futures instead of undermine them.
Have an uplifting Rosh Hashanah. Give you and your family the gift of a new and inspired vision that will guide you to the beautiful future that you have created. And, may Hashem give you the berachah and the miracle you will need to make that future, and more, a living reality this year. May you be blessed with vigorous health, blessed prosperity, and miraculous success both in your material and your spiritual undertakings.
With deep appreciation, admiration and warm affection.
David Lapin
