High Holidays are Coming! (Oh and a Bit on the Parsha Too)

As much as the High Holidays are a time for reflection on yourself and your sins of the past year, I am also really looked forward to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur this October. Although its true, a Jew should "feel" Jewish everyday of his life, but for me the High Holidays are a special time to have a personal discussion with discussion as well as time to thank Him for everything he has given us.

We also get to dress up in Yom Tov (holiday) clothes, feast on delicious food, and be with friends and family. I've already made deliberate preparations, taken off work, and this year, I will try my hardest to follow every halacha of the holiday. I remember that last year around this time, I didn't even have a job, so it was easier to observe the holiday...but this year, my job and current living situation has gotten in the way of keeping Shabbos as much as I would like as well as keeping some of the holidays. I hope to avoid that this year and will ask G-d to help me in my plan to do so.

The High Holidays will also mean my trip to Israel (right after Simchat Torah!) is right around the corner. I'm so excited! Yes, I was there for a month last summer and didn't really know what I was doing, but I was in a house of girls and they planned out most of our days for us (though nighttime we always had free.) Now I am officially on my own, figuring out where I'm going to stay, making my own choices, and I hope to have the language under my belt, at least a little bit. I'm nervous about speaking it.

And the parsha...based on a Drasha by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky

Often Americans are forced to make a choice when it comes to politics. People constantly ask me are you a conservative or a liberal? Are you a Republican or Democrat? We're not to be left with just a tad bit right wing tendencies or right with a smidgen of life wing thrown in. And we're always forced to pick a side.

How ironic then that this week's Parsha Shoftim says, "Do not stray from the path of their counsel, neither to the left or to the right." The Talmud continues by interpreting that we must not stray even when right is right and left is left. We must continue on the path ahead.

While other question, how can we misinterpret direction? Either something is right or something is left. Not the case, according to our sages. Personal experiences and attitudes towards various situations constantly influence our attitude toward Hashem and towards Torah. I mean, really, why aren't all Jews today tznius, G-d fearing people that keep the law as written in the Torah. Should one get into the middle of a situation with the possibility of offending another or not get involved due to political correctness despite the fact the person may have something to settle. If we do see a definite left or right, are we looking from the wrong angle? Is our right Torah's left and vice versa?

To sum it all up, we are told to follow our sages whether they tell us right is right or right is left, meaning we must follow the Torah and keep it as our guidebook and our compass, guiding us in the right direction. But in a confusing world out there and one may stray. Just know that its the Torah that will guide you back on the correct (not right!) path.