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A New Year's Resolution for the SoulJanuary 2007From the Desk of Rabbi CohonEach and every January there is a huge spike in memberships at health clubs and sports fitness organizations all over America. Everyone in the nation, it seems, wants to lose those extra five, ten, or twenty pounds added over the holiday season, and figures the new secular year is the time to get into shape.
Why not apply that same approach to your spiritual life this January? After all, while commitment to your physical health (and appearance) is surely wise, ultimately nothing is more important than your moral and emotional health. And choosing to address that need through prayer, study, social action, and Jewish experience can provide the impetus to renew the health of your soul.
The Jewish approach to spiritual rejuvenation focuses on four areas: prayer, study, and ethical and ritual practice. Prayer is something that should be engaged in both publicly and privately. Take a few moments each day this year to connect with God, to give thanks for what you have, or to talk about what you need. We all have a five or ten minutes a day we can use for the spiritual exercise that can make us whole.
Public prayer matters, too. This month at Temple Emanu-El - as we do every month - we provide an array of opportunities for varied forms of prayer in public settings, Friday night, Saturday morning, and Havdallah on Saturday evening. Our services range from Tot to Rock to Simply Shabbat to "regular services" to Kabbalistic to hike services to Senior services, with just about everything in between. Make a commitment to attend one additional Shabbat experience at Temple each month this year. You will be amazed at the varieties of meaningful chances for prayer and community you will have.
Make a choice this year to increase your Jewish knowledge. Our Adult Education Academy Winter/Spring Semester begins this month - and it is filled with meaningful ways to study Jewish wisdom, mysticism, tradition, practice, and history. Learn to read Hebrew at our Marathon, or to chant Torah. Deepen your understanding of the world and your place in it Jewishly.
And our Social Action program is also rich - use some of your valuable time to volunteer for Deep Freeze or Project Hospitality, to work on one of our many opportunities to better our community. Make a difference by giving for the sake of Tikun Olam, the healing of our world.
And, finally, in this new secular year, choose a ritual practice to engage in that you haven't dine regularly before, or for some time. Try lighting Shabbat candles weekly, if you don't already. Prepare for and celebrate Havdallah at least once. Make a commitment to host or attend a Tu Bishvat Seder - including ours - next month.
New Year's resolutions abound on a variety of subjects, and most of them our outmoded by February. But a set of simple spiritual resolutions has greater potential to change your life for the better than any gym in the world.
May this be a good and healthy secular new year of real spiritual growth.
L'Shalom v'rei'ut, in peace and friendship,
Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon
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