Shabbat Shuvah Parshat Haazinu Deuteronomy 32:1-52

Shabbat Shuvah
Parshat Haazinu
Deuteronomy 32:1-52

This Shabbat gets its name from the special Haftarah that is read this week. The reading is a selection from three different prophets, Hosea, Micah and Joel. Even though three different prophets are read, the message is the same one from each, of repentance and return to God and God’s ways. This is the emphasis during this Ten Day of Repentance and Awe.

During this time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we Jews are supposed to seriously engage in soul-wrangling. What is soul-wrangling? We are supposed to look inside and review our ways. Find the inconsistencies, the places we sinned; the words we spoke that caused pain and harm; the relationships that were fractured; and where we missed the mark completely by commission or omission. We are to use these ten days to improve our spiritual foundations and shore up the weakness. We are to try to rebuild our connection to the Divine. This Holy Week we are to make amends to others, to ourselves and to God for not walking in holy paths. This is the work of soul-wrangling!

Soul-wrangling is never easy. But we are supposed to get a handle on these places during this week so that come Yom Kippur we can really step forward before God and before those with whom we tangled in the last year and seek forgiveness. And it takes some doing. To get the most out of Yom Kippur worship. To really atone and be renewed for the year to come, one must take some time of preparation. That is what this holy time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is for.

To help you with your soul-wrangling here is a meditation from the writing of Rabbi Nachaman of Breslov. He was an important Hasidic master who was only thirty-eight years old when he died in 1810! But he left for us a profound body of writings that shows not only great intelligence but deep spiritual yearnings. Try to use it in your preparations for Yom Kippur.

Oh forgiving God,
You alone know
How urgently I need to learn to forgive,
Help me douse all the anger
That burns within me.
Free me of resentment
Against those who have wronged me.
Help me abandon all of the animosity
All the hostility
That clogs my heart
Help me to turn my anger into love
And my enmity into compassion. (Likutei Mohoran 1:18)
(The Gentle Weapon, adapted by Moshe Mykoff & S.C. Mizrachi, Jewish Light Publishing, Vermont, 2000, p. 54)

I wish for you a week of spiritual preparation and soul wrangling!
Shanah Tovah u’metukah

Posted by Eric at September 23, 2009 12:44 PM