To Bless What We Sometimes Cannot See

This is the time of year when we all draw up a memory balance sheet. We think about our priorities. We think about the way we use our time. And even though we say we are not judgmental, we are. We judge each one of our relationships. We think about everyone else’s shortcomings, often with disappointment and anger. But then we catch ourselves doing this, and we try to counter those feelings with generosity and kindness. We ask ourselves about what we give. Do we give comfort when we should? Do we show love inconsistently? Do we make the sacrifices we should,or are we self-consumed?

The Machzor, the High Holyday prayer book tells us that
G-d remembers the good in each of us despite our
mistakes. It also asks us to remember the good in each
other and in the world. We are not blind to evil, but
neither are we blind to the power of goodness. Jewish
people believe in the power of goodness to overcome evil.

We choose life.

There is an obscure law in the Talmud that had always
amazed me. It has to do with the blessing over the new
moon at the beginning of each new month. The Talmud
requires a blind person to bless the new moon. Why
would the sages require a person to bless something he
cannot see? Simply, to affirm what is hidden. To see what
we cannot see.

This past year it has been hard sometimes to see things
as good and decent. But this is a new month and a new
year. And we are commanded by thousands of years of
what it means to be Jewish, to bless what we sometimes
cannot see and to affirm what is sometimes hidden.

This New Year and every year, we choose goodness.
This New Year and every year, we choose life.

Shanah Tova.
Rabbi Scolni