ELUL SINNING AND REPENTANCE

The month of Elul is typically the month when we repent of our sins in order to get clean and be entered into the book of life. I’m all in favor of the idea of taking a soul accounting, a Chesbhon Hanefesh.  This is a practice I believe in and have long done.  But the experience of the month has always fallen a bit flat, because I have never had this long list of sins against my fellow humans and I never felt that not following halacha, Jewish law, was a sin against God.  But this Elul, I have added two aspects to my Cheshbon Hanefesh.

The first is an accounting of how I have failed, through my choices, to live the life I was born to live.  These individual missings of the mark add up to a sin against both myself and the divine. My life would have been much richer had I been able to live the life I should have been able to live. The proper tikkun, repair, here is to forgive both myself and the divine for how I have not lived the life I should have lived.

The second aspect is an accounting of how I have sinned against the more than human world as an active participant/enabler in the American lifestyle. The way we have harmed the more than human world around us is evident every day and in every step we take, if we are able to open our hearts to it. I have been asking myself how I can repent, what steps can I take to truly lighten my impact on the more than human world.

May we all be blessed with a good and sweet new year, where we sin less against our fellow humans, the divine and the more than human world.