In his beautiful Yom Kippur Meditation, “Letters to the Next Generation,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes, “The single most important lesson of Yom Kippur is that it’s never too late to change, start again, and live differently from the way we’ve done in the past.” (Link to Rabbi Sacks' Reflections)
During this week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur I experience deeply the passage from on the one hand feeling ourselves imprisoned by our past conduct and on the other hand feeling ourselves soon-to-be liberated by forgiveness.
In this space between being encaged by our fixed and flawed conduct of last year and the boundless opportunities for growth and change in the year just begun, the infamous story of a special tiger named Mohini comes to mind.
Mohini was the rare, white tiger given to President Eisenhower and the children of America as a gift in December 1960. When she was delivered to the National Zoo in Washington she spent most of her days pacing back and forth in a 12 by 12 foot cage. Mohini walked her cage every day around and around in the same pattern.
Her unique and majestic appearance drew lots of new visitors to the zoo. This enabled the zoo to build Mohini a habitat instead of a cage -- much larger, natural and lush giving her space to roam and wander.
During this week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur I experience deeply the passage from on the one hand feeling ourselves imprisoned by our past conduct and on the other hand feeling ourselves soon-to-be liberated by forgiveness.
In this space between being encaged by our fixed and flawed conduct of last year and the boundless opportunities for growth and change in the year just begun, the infamous story of a special tiger named Mohini comes to mind.
Mohini was the rare, white tiger given to President Eisenhower and the children of America as a gift in December 1960. When she was delivered to the National Zoo in Washington she spent most of her days pacing back and forth in a 12 by 12 foot cage. Mohini walked her cage every day around and around in the same pattern.
Her unique and majestic appearance drew lots of new visitors to the zoo. This enabled the zoo to build Mohini a habitat instead of a cage -- much larger, natural and lush giving her space to roam and wander.
But when Mohini was liberated from her cage and placed in her spacious new habitat instead of exploring or wandering she walked to a corner by the wall. There she paced off a 12 by 12 foot square. Mohini stuck to her well-worn pattern -- pacing within her (now) self-imposed 12 foot square. Sadly, Mohini walked that same constrained pattern every day until her death; never venturing beyond the cage she kept for herself.
We are, at times, at risk for being just like Mohini. We become so comfortable with the well-worn path of our life that despite its limitations or the fact that we might regret many of the steps we take, we hold to the pattern.
Yom Kippur comes to remind us it is never too late to change, to step outside the well-worn path we set by our conduct last year, to embrace new challenges and opportunities in the year that just began.
Now is the time to recognize the limitations of that path to see it as it really is, then to expand our horizons, and to embrace change. It takes honesty, it takes courage, and it takes integrity with our the highest goals we have for ourselves and our community.
It is also good to remember as teachers -- and adults in the lives of teens -- that students sometimes, like Mohini, grow to fit the space we help create for them. When we keep that space too small, we encage our students. But when we make that space expansive and encourage our students to take risks, then our students have the most room to grow.
As we each consider how to step beyond the well-worn path of last year, how to break free from the cages that we keep, I encourage each of us to take more steps in the year that just began in these ways:
Give thanks more -- for having choices, for friendships, for little kindnesses, and for simple blessings.
Forgive more -- because carrying resentment or anger is like a backpack filled with heavy stones only slowing us down. Expand forgiveness to include not only forgiving others but also forgiving ourselves.
Listen more -- There is a Yiddish proverb that we were given two ears but only one mouth -- so that we would listen more and talk less. (Link to Yiddish proverb) Now is the time for more listening.
Step more -- Anne Frank once wrote: “How wonderful it is that nobody has to wait, but can start right now to gradually change the world.” To change the our world takes but a single step beyond the boundaries we impose on ourselves.
May we be liberated from our cages and sealed for a good, sweet year.
Now is the time to recognize the limitations of that path to see it as it really is, then to expand our horizons, and to embrace change. It takes honesty, it takes courage, and it takes integrity with our the highest goals we have for ourselves and our community.
It is also good to remember as teachers -- and adults in the lives of teens -- that students sometimes, like Mohini, grow to fit the space we help create for them. When we keep that space too small, we encage our students. But when we make that space expansive and encourage our students to take risks, then our students have the most room to grow.
As we each consider how to step beyond the well-worn path of last year, how to break free from the cages that we keep, I encourage each of us to take more steps in the year that just began in these ways:
Give thanks more -- for having choices, for friendships, for little kindnesses, and for simple blessings.
Forgive more -- because carrying resentment or anger is like a backpack filled with heavy stones only slowing us down. Expand forgiveness to include not only forgiving others but also forgiving ourselves.
Listen more -- There is a Yiddish proverb that we were given two ears but only one mouth -- so that we would listen more and talk less. (Link to Yiddish proverb) Now is the time for more listening.
Step more -- Anne Frank once wrote: “How wonderful it is that nobody has to wait, but can start right now to gradually change the world.” To change the our world takes but a single step beyond the boundaries we impose on ourselves.
May we be liberated from our cages and sealed for a good, sweet year.
I am grateful to Rabba Sara Hurwitz for highlighting the Mohini story in the High Holy Day context with her 2012 blog post for Craig Taubman’s touching, annual “Jewels of Elul” collection for the month before the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Link to Rabba Hurwitz 1 Elul 5772
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