Teshuvah

Rabbi Jonathan Saxs says tshouva is not about looking back with guilt but about looking forward with hope. And I think this really summarizes what yum kipper is all about. There's a puk there's a verse in Mish that says a righteous person fell seven times and he ca he got up and the commentaries explain that he became righteous because he fell seven times. The falling is actually part of the process of growth. In the tal this is referred to as we have to go down sometimes in order to really reach our potential. And my message to each and every one of you listening to this is not to run away from your past, but to look at your past as a stepping stone for your future. To look at your mistakes, to look at your traumas, your history, not as something you're trying to run away from, but as something you can learn from. And with that in mind, we can turn literally every negative experience that we ever had into a growth experience. And this is what tshoua is all about. Toshuva is to return to take our past to grow from our past to take our mistakes and to build from our mistakes and to build an amazing future. Wishing each and every one of you a meaningful yum kipur and an easy fast.