A woman was waiting in a bank with her daughter, a preschool student at a Jewish school. The line-up was long and the woman was trying to watch her daughter while filling out the proper banking slips as they progressed through line. She glanced up from the bank slip and noticed her daughter was no longer standing at her side.

Immediately the woman began to scan the people around looking for her daughter and within seconds her eyes found the little girl. The young preschooler was standing at the bank counter next to an old Chassidic man being served by the teller. The old Chassid, dressed in long black coat and black hat with a long white beard was busy talking to the teller. He didn’t notice that the little girl was standing straight and tall right next to him and in her proudest voice was singing ‘Hatikvah’.

The High Holidays are a time of self-reflection and accountability. There are many people who do not know how to begin this process and for them the High Holidays can be a time of self-guilt, isolation, disconnection and family politics.

The question of self-reflection is addressed by Jewish text in a discussion on why the Torah was given in the wilderness. In fact, Pharaoh had offered Moses to worship God in Egypt and God rejected such an offer. The setting within which we begin to self-reflect is crucial to first steps. (more…)