Thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, the sound of the shofar can be heard. It’s the world’s most ancient alarm clock.

“Get off your tush, take an accounting of life, dude.”

And I start to think. Where am I? Am I in a rut. Am I lost. Where exactly do I think this will get me. Does this path lead to honors and integrity. How can I maintain my since of self. Am I all about myself. Do I care enough about those around me. Do I show my love for those that are kind to me. What does God think of me, and what I am, and what I am becoming. What do my great-grandparents think as they look on at my life. Are they proud of me. What can I change and what should I maintain. Its only thirty days before the day of Rosh Hashanah, the clock is ticking, the sand is falling through the hourglass. Wow is there a lot of work to do.

About the author

Rabbi Yonah

4 Comments

  • WADR, I hate this type of sermonizing. It is such a turn off you have no idea. Just learn Torah w/ us.

    My Rabbi does this where i live. He can’t let ther e be a happy moment like an aufruf w/out putting people down for one thing or another.

    Rabbis in particular seem to be in their own world. most of them.

    For all his mussar and sermonizing over the years ( and Torah he is a recognized Gadol), I can’t see that much in terms of special character or behavior in the congregations. The sick political battles and animosity are there.

    So does sermonizing like this accomplish anything worthwhile?

  • Sermon?!!! I guess you read the wrong post because this was no sermon, this was no mussar, this was no “sermonizing”.

    This is me talking to myself Steves. It’s in the first person.

    Dude, I think that there is alot of baggage you got there, and I am sure that the “sermons” that you were subjected to were a turn off. I hear it loud and clear. and that is too bad that they were so unable to communicate. But just because a rabbi opens his pen, it doesn’t mean it is a sermon.

    As far as learning Torah with you? I am happy to.
    It says in the Shulchan Aruch that 30 days before a festival a person should start relearning the laws connected to that festival. The laws concerning Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur for example are covered in many books, but especially the Mateh Ephraim.

    The Mateh Efraim starts of:
    סימן תקפא
    CUSTOMS OF CHODESH ELUL, SLICHOT, AND EREV ROSH HASHANAH

    From Rosh Chodesh Elul and on are days of compassion and penitence, aspiration, and every person should arouse in their hearts teshuva and to atone for all the sins they committed on their soul from the beginning….

    Shall I continue?

  • I enjoyed it, Rabbi, and thought it was important to have here. I’ll be happy to read more such posts in the future.

  • “Get off your tush, take an accounting of life, dude.”

    Sorry but this is a sermon, dressed up maybe in hipster dude talk. where is your chidushei Torah. Tell us a new pshat on something.