Ten Practices for a Meaningful and Transformative Yom Kippur (MS Word document)
"Here’s a quick glance at some practices which I find conducive to a meaningful and, hopefully, transformative Yom Kippur, the one day each year dedicated to looking deeply within and emerging with renewed clarity and commitment:"
With this evening’s sunset and the tiny sliver of silvery moon hanging in the western sky before it slips behind the ocean, our exquisite world will enter into the arc of our yearly sweep through the heavens that we call the month of Elul — אלול.
"This new month of Kislev may be best thought of as a time to dis-cover, to reveal, the light that is hiding in the dark, the Presence that is within the Void."
"In biblical and post-biblical times, Sukkot was so important to the Jewish people that it was simply called he-hag, 'THE holiday.'"
"The simple daily-ness
of Heshvan is the place to look for God's presence as we progress on our
journey."
"The teaching
of Elul is that when we live 'I am my Beloved's', i.e. when we give ourselves
over to belonging to God through our inner reflections and our outward
deeds, then we find that God responds to us and we know that 'my Beloved
is mine'…"
"Shavu’ot
celebrates the giving of Torah at Mt. Sinai (in the religious-spiritual
realm of life) and the first fruits of the harvest (in the natural-agricultural
realm)…"
"The name Iyyar
is a cognate of the word or which means “light”.
[Iyyar = alef-yud-yud-resh ~ Or = alef-vav-resh]. In kabbalah, Iyyar is
prime time for gaining wisdom (opening paragraph of Sefer Bnei Yissachar
on Hodesh Iyyar) or perhaps enlightenment."
"As
we come to the end of the month of Adar and the beginning of Nisan, may
we learn from the courage and clarity of those who have dedicated themselves
to both the personal and the collective process of bringing the Divine
Presence more fully into this world..."