Ethics from the Weekly Torah portion - WAKE UP!

In this week's Torah portions, we read about the laws regarding the festivals of the year; beginning with Rosh HaShanah - the jewish new year, and Yom Kippur - the day of atonement.

During these days we reach greater spiritual heights and through the prayers and atmosphere of the day we receive much inspiration.

However, unfortunately, this is not always internalised fully and thus becomes lost with time. After the period of the high holidays are over we simply continue as before. Imagine someone was fortunate enough to win £/$ 100,000,000! He wouldn't blow it al at once (which would prove quite difficult anyway) but would invest it and ensure it lasts for himself and future generations.

Very often we fail to internalise the message of these days because they're always talking about "someone else". We fail to realise that the messages of these days are a direct line to us. We fail to release the "tweet" from Heaven is aimed @you and not @him.

This leaves us satisfied that we have performed our duties and ready for another year of potential and opportunity. We focus on lofty goals - improving the world - through various lofty resolutions that are far beyond our means. But we fail to realise that in order the improve the world we must first improve ourselves. However, the bigger picture from a few feet/metres away means we do not see the fine detail.

On Rosh Hashanah, there is one special mitzvah on this day. This is Shofar- blowing the ram's horn. We use one shofar; and a shofar is not quite a Steinway Grand Piano or a Stradivarius violin. It is a plain, simple, horn of a ram.

We blow the Shofar, to remind us we need to focus on ourselves. Whilst the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of Kol Nidrei would no doubt be very emotional and inspiring, it is the ram's horn that gives us the ultimate message. We bring holiness and sanctity and infuse it with our spirituality. We take our ram's horns and elevate them. The same way we elevate our very selves, and by improving ourselves, we can then improve the world.


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