World renowned teacher, Mashpia and Shliach, Rabbi DovBer Pinson, has released two 500+ page new books on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
These two books are an in depth exploration of the major themes of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and how they are illuminated in Chassidus and rendered in a very down-to-earth and accessible way.
Both these books are presently the number 1 Release in Jewish books on Amazon.
Available in all good Jewish Bookstores, in Kehos, and on Amazon.com
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Excerpt from one of the books:
The time of the High Holidays is a very powerful and potentially transformative period. Yet, often, although this time may have been transformative, it is quite difficult to pinpoint the exact moment that something actually occurred. Nevertheless, we can all acknowledge that at some point during the High Holidays there were maybe five minutes, or even just thirty seconds, when we felt connected with something very deep and real. This connection may have been one that we felt during an encounter with our own deeper self or transcendent being, with the community or another individual, with the text of the Machzor / prayer book or the sound of the Shofar, with a spiritual teaching or connecting inwardly with our ancestors and history — whatever it may have been, it positively changed our consciousness.
In these moments and periods of deep connection, we get a deeper glimpse into who we are and what our purpose on this earth is. You might receive a flash of ‘who’ you really are beneath all your conditioning and identification, or a glimpse of ‘what’ you can aspire to be. Perhaps you sensed a new horizon opening up when you asked yourself an essential and unavoidable question in the presence of the Divine.
These are ‘connecting’ moments, moments that help us truly focus our lives and, sometimes, even to shift the trajectory of our life completely.
Yet, even when we have such potentially transformative moments, the truth is also that “people want change to occur overnight,” as the Kotzker Rebbe once quipped, “and they want to sleep that night, as well.”
We are told that on Rosh Hashanah we should minimize our sleep in general, and specifically to refrain from sleep during the day — certainly we should not nap before midday. The deeper reason is that Rosh Hashanah is a time to be ‘awake’: to wake up to our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual responsibilities, and to our innate human potential. The work of changing our lives happens when we are awake, and it does not come passively or as instant gratification.
Rosh Hashanah is a celebration of the birthday of humanity; it is our collective and individual day of birth. The first Rosh Hashanah occurred when the Creator told the world and the angels, “I want to create human beings (Adam and Chavah / Eve).” Ever since, it is the day the Creator says of every person, ‘I have such a special soul, a special person, that must exist in My world.” The world may be populated with many people, yet we were each born because the Creator wants us, the world needs us, and we need each other.
On our ‘birthday’ (and for that matter every day, and every moment we are alive) Hashem is telling us, ‘I want you. The world would feel empty without you — I desire you to be here.’ Our Avodah / inner work on this day is therefore to fully ‘be here’.
“Everything was created according to its knowledge,” means that we were asked, as it were, if we wanted to be created, and we replied, “Yes”
We were thus born with our own confirmation that we ‘deserved’ to be born; from the beginning we understood deep down that we are needed, that the world is not the same place without us. And so, on Rosh Hashanah, our collective birthday, we should reflect on these existential inquiries:
● Why was I born?
● Am I fulfilling my purpose?
● Does the way I live my life justify my existence?
● Am I fully present with my life and my potential?
It is a new year, a new beginning. We are therefore given a couple days upon which we can reflect on our lives, and experience for at least a moment or two the depths of this transformative new phase of life. Our reflections might include two elements: a) processing with the past so it does not crowd out the present, and b) focusing on the present, as a portal into a new future.
To move forward, we usually need to unload the bags that are weighing us down from our past journeys. To do this, it helps to make a compassionate but accurate self-evaluation and inventory, or spiritual accounting. This is because we need to ‘own’ the problems of our past before we can separate from them and then transform them into tools for growth.
‘Owning our past’ means looking back on the past year and noticing when we were successful and perhaps in which areas we fell short of our potential. This is a time to evaluate which traits, habits, or activities we should continue, and which ones we should release. Think about this as well in terms of your relationships — with Hashem, with yourself, with family, loved ones, co-workers, community, people in general, other species, and the earth as a whole. We have many spheres of relationship and in each one we need to honestly observe and notice the integrity or lack thereof, of what we are doing. We must ask ourselves: Where am I learning, growing, ascending, and where am I stuck, stagnant, or even descending?
The spiritual technologies of Tefilah / prayer, study, introspection, and self-evaluation, help us make order in our life. Such an ‘ordering’ process makes it possible to account for and categorize each of our ‘problems’ properly, so that we can clearly understand what is bothering us, and what is connecting us to joy and openness. What is lifting you and what is pulling you down? By undergoing such a soul-reckoning, you can create for yourself a new vision and program for the coming year.
Think about how your past has brought you into the present moment. Where have you been and what have you done? Envision the future. In the coming year, where do you want to be and what do you want to do, and why?
Think about how you might live more fully. Ask yourself: what do I envision for myself? Who do I see myself becoming? Where would I like to reach? What are the steps that I can take to move toward these goals? Where are my vulnerabilities and how can I be attentive to them? What are my strengths, and how can I ensure that arrogance does not creep in? Which areas in life should I invest in, and which ones are depleting my energy?
Rosh Hashanah is actually the Rosh / ‘head’ of the new year, not merely the ‘first’ day of the year. This means Rosh Hashanah is the ‘headquarters’ or ‘brain’ of the new year; where the template of the coming year is imprinted and projected. It is vital that we use our own Rosh / head on this day, to create a vision for ourselves, as the year that follows is but an articulation and unpacking of that original vision.
Shanah means year. The word Shanah comes from the same etymological root as the word Shinui / change (שנה הוא לשון שינוי. See Zohar 3, 277b, Ramaz, ad loc. Shoresh Yesha, Erech Shanah. Avodas haKodesh, 4:19. Ohr haTorah, Miketz, 338. Likutei Sichos, 4, p. 1323).
As such, Rosh Hashanah can mean ‘changing your Rosh / head’, shifting and renewing your consciousness and way of thinking. On Rosh Hashanah we need to work on changing the way we see and think about ourselves and the people and world around us. We need to begin to see and understand things from a radically deeper perspective.
