It's beshert that today's Elul prompt is "prepare" because my intention today was to prepare the service outlines for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I'm big into preparation, sort of. I start planning for events - divrei Torah, essays for local newspapers, parties, services, lesson plans, concerts - weeks and months in advance. I brainstorm and research, come up with lots of ideas, and make long notes and lists. Then I promptly stop as soon as something more interesting or immediate comes my way. I figure that I have "plenty of time" before said event, so I can get back to finalizing my prepping soon enough. The reality, though, is that because I am very expert at last-minute pulling together, all those deeply researched lists fall apart, and I usually do wind up doing that last-minute thing. And that's a problem. Financially, I wind up spending more money than I should have needed to ordering things with overnight delivery. I spend ho
https://pixabay.com/photos/output-input-light-beam-sunlight-419280/ ...בְּצֵאת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִמִּרַָים , בֵּית יַעֲקֹב מֵעַם לֹעֵז As Israel was leaving Egypt (also: a place of narrowness and despair), the house of Jacob from a people with a strange language ... (Psalm 114) A year ago I started to leave my own place of narrowness and despair, leaving behind a language that had become not only strange but physically and spiritual damaging. A series of coincidences suggested that there might be a door for me to walk through. Would I be able to open it all the way so I could actually get out? Would the door slam and hit me in the face? Would I have the courage to learn a new language? Time will tell.