Karaoke Tefillah: Hallel! 🎤

Next Request: Hallel!

Karaoke Hallel - click here and sing along!

Enjoy this Hallel Karaoke medley, and feel free to share it with your communities.  Chodesh Tov (A Good Month)! 

Make New Mistakes Next Year

Dear Friends,

This Thursday and Friday we'll celebrate Rosh Chodesh Elul. Rosh Chodesh, literally “the head of the month,” is a celebratory minor holiday that begins each new Hebrew month. Similar to the Gregorian calendar, the Jewish calendar has 12 months (and in leap years 13!), and each month begins with a small celebration, allowing us to mark time and reflect, like a mini new year. In so many ways, Judaism is about awareness, about noticing things as we walk through life and about living life with intention. We add extra celebratory Hallel (praise) prayers on Rosh Chodesh to mark this occasion.

Rosh Chodesh Elul in particular is a time of introspection. It begins a period of 40 days of repentance and reflection that culminates on Yom Kippur. This returning, Teshuvah, is a central theme at this time of year. But what is Teshuvah?

Rambam (AKA Maimonidies, a famous medieval Jewish philosopher) comes to the conclusion that real teshuvah is when a situation comes to pass in which one had previously sinned in a similar situation, and one chooses not to sin again this time. In other words, Teshuvah is when you leave a sin completely behind. When you decide in your mind and in your heart that you will not do that thing again. 

One of my favorite rabbinic teachers, the Netivot Shalom, adds on to this idea and says that when a person chooses to veer away from sin, when a person is faced with the same situation and makes a different choice, it is as if that person is saying, "I am different. I am not the same person that committed that action in the past." In that moment, it is as if you have become an entirely new person. You are literally reinventing yourself. This is something that only you can choose to do. 

As we enter this season, let's mark this moment in time with a celebration of Rosh Chodesh! May we find ways to celebrate in addition to reflecting. May we make new mistakes instead of old ones. And may we commit to a year of invention and reinvention for ourselves and for the world.

Please enjoy this Hallel Karaoke medley, and feel free to share it with your communities! Chodesh Tov (A Good Month)! 

Shabbat Shalom,
Josh

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