In a world of conflicting ideals, how do we seek what is essential in ourselves?As the poet Edward Young asked, “Born originals, how comes it to pass that we die copies?” The sustained pressure of poor role models, the insistent artifice of media manipulations (think of game shows where you win only if you guess the answer everyone else gives) and the need to fit in often misshape us.
While the high holidays encourage community and solidarity, while we confess in the plural and pray for the world, each individual is judged and must judge him or herself as an individual. Our abilities, expectations and gifts differ. As one Rabbi eloquently said, “We pray alone together.”
The Kotzker Rebbe asked, “If I spend my life pretending to be someone else, who will be me?” This month of Elul is a time to explore our actions, the visible traces of character in this world. If the path we have made is a betrayal of our soul’s destiny, we are in need of tikkun, of repair. We grow into ourselves so that we return to God as we were made – an end that justifies and completes our beginning.
Rabbi David Wolpe is the Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California. www.sinaitemple.org
