A Message from Sia’h Shalom Administrator and Financial Director Rabbi Yitzchak “Isadore” Rubenstein
A couple of weeks before Rosh Hashanah every year, we read the Torah portion of Ki Tavo, which begins by describing the various commandments such as tithes specifically applicable in the land of Israel. There is a strange anomaly here: a passage called “the Confession of Tithes,” in which one declares that one has done everything absolutely perfectly and completely, not even omitting something by forgetting. In what reality can this be called a confession? A confession is an admission of wrongdoing, a catalog of our shortcomings and a list of our weaknesses. How can this statement of perfection be classed as a confession?
Rabbi Soloveitchik suggests a game-changing reading. During the High Holidays period, cataloging our wrongdoing, shortcomings and weaknesses would be a meaningless masochistic act if there was not, at the same time, an acknowledgement that we can be better, and that we have within us the potential for perfection as represented by the confession of Tithes.
If this new year we are aware of shortcomings, but if at the same time build our sense of the infinite potential within, we can truly embark on a trajectory of step-by-step growth.
And one more piece: The great potential we are referring to is not only the ability to think, speak and do good. It is to live a life in true harmony with our environment; in caring connection with all those around us; and in spiritual sync with the God and Godliness pulsing within and beckoning from beyond.
Shana Tova,
Yitzchak