Ki Tetzei

In this week’s parashah, Ki Tetzei, Moshe urges us to let “no shameful thing be seen among you.” The S’fat Emet,focusing on the word “seen,” drew a lesson from that passage about teshuvah, personal change.

The first step in teshuvah is to recognize and regret our failure. But sometimes too much recognition and regret can block the next step, which is to leave our failure behind and move on. When we are trapped by shame, then we cannot move forward. When our vision of our failure takes up our whole field of vision and we can see no path beyond it, then the only way to free ourselves is to pay less attention to our failure, to make it in a sense invisible. According to theS’fat Emet, that is what Moshe means by urging us to let “no shameful thing be seen among you.” It is by choosing to stop focusing on the source of our shame, to stop dwelling on it unnecessarily, that we free ourselves to grow beyond it.

May the month of Elul, the month of teshuvah, be a time of liberation and growth for all of us.

• Shabbat services at The New Shul are on Friday evenings from 6 to 7 pm and on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 noon. The kiddush this Shabbat is sponsored by Judy Christensen and Pat Power.
• Childcare is available from 10 am to 12 noon on Shabbat mornings.
• Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am and on Wednesday mornings at 7 am.
• Kasher Noshers meets for dinner on Sunday August 18 at 6 pm (restaurant TBD). You can sign up here.
• Join us for S’lihot on Saturday night August 31. We will start at 9 pm with a screening and discussion of the film “Footnote” by Yosef Cedar. The S’lihot service will follow at about 11:30 pm.
• On Monday September 2, Labor Day, The New Shul community will serve meals to the hungry at St. Vincent de Paul’s Jackson St. dining room. Please let us know if you are available to help.
• Rosh Hashanah begins on Wednesday evening September 4. You can find complete information on The New Shul’s High Holiday services here.