Kavvanah: The Accidental Reset and the Elul Moment

A curious thing happened to me a few nights ago.  I was re-installing some software on my computer, and my media player program suddenly decided that we were back in 2010.  After syncing (I know, that looks funny; do you prefer "synching"?) my mp3 device, I noticed that all of the podcasts were two years old.  I had what you might call an "Elul moment": Where am I?  What year is this?  Am I the same person I was two years ago?  Have I been replaying the same material for all of this time?

After some technical tinkering, I was able to convince my gadget that it was now 2012 (or maybe the end of 5772), and all was right again.  But lingering from the sudden bout of reflection was a kind of gratitude, a reassuring acknowledgment that in fact, no!  I am not who I was two years ago.  I have two more years of growth and change in my internal personnel files.

We grow incrementally, such that we often do not notice the ways in which we have changed.  But that is what the month of Elul is for -- reflection, evaluation, inventory.  How have you changed since last Elul?  Is it for the better?  If not, what can you do about it?


~
Rabbi Seth Adelson

Time for an Inventory of "Meaningful Stuff" - Thursday Kavvanah, 1/12/2012

We are currently seeking a Director of Education, and as such I have seen a number of resumes of late.  One crossed my e-desk last night, notable for the following bullet points under one of the candidate's recent positions (I am not making this up!):

• Prepared and taught original classes and lectures several times per week
• Hosted Shabbat services and meals
• Did some other meaningful stuff

Considering the rather flippant (and quite amusing) third point, it seems to me that there are really only three possibilities here:
1.  The candidate is not really looking for a job.
2.  The candidate never learned how to put together a resume properly.
3.  The candidate used it as a placeholder for something else that he could not come up with at the time, and figured that he would come back to it later, but apparently never did.

I am going to go with the third possibility, giving him kaf zekhut (the benefit of the doubt).  But the lesson we can all learn here is the following: every now and then, it's a good idea to take inventory of all the "meaningful stuff" in our lives, and make sure that we have followed through.  Where are the placeholders, the important items to which we intended to return?  Who are the friends, relatives, and colleagues to whom we still owe a call, a coffee, a card?  What are the elements of our internal curricula vitae that remain unedited?

Perhaps now would be a good time for review.  Behatzlahah!  Good luck!

Elul 3: Teshuvah inventory questions

For the purposes of introspection, here is a list of ten questions that we might consider for the next four weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah:

In the past year, have I...

... taken care of the people around me enough?

... sought reconciliation with loved ones whom I have struggled with?

... improved my connections with others?

... tried to focus on personal behaviors that I would like to change?

... sought humility?

... evaluated how my actions affect others?

... volunteered my time for the betterment of society or the environment?

... mistreated anybody, deliberately or not?

... not fulfilled promises?

... considered ways to improve this world, and taken appropriate action?


Writing this has given me plenty to think about! Feel free to add your own introspective questions in the comments below.

*****

This is the fourth in a series of thoughts for Elul. Here are the three previous ones:

Rosh Hodesh Elul: What's more important than electricity?

Elul 1: Resonances of the Shofar

Elul 2: The Spaces In-Between

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