Walking Humbly into the New Year

28 Elul, Tuesday, September 22

Alan Morinis tells the story, in his book Everyday Holiness, when he finished speaking to a crowd and a woman excitedly came up to speak to him. She opened by saying to him, “You have a wonderful, wonderful…”

Before she got to the end of the sentence, his mind was already filling in the blank. Perhaps she was going to praise his voice, or his way with words, or presence. He was all ready to accept the compliment, when she concluded the sentence, “…wife.”

I chuckle every time I read that story, knowing how my mind can jump ahead in the conversation and fill in the blanks in the most flattering way. This story illuminates the quality of anavah, humility, which is one of the most basic qualities in the “spiritual curriculum” of Mussar, Jewish ethical self-examination. As Rabbi Bachya ibn Pakuda taught in Duties of the Heart, “all virtues and duties are dependent on humility.”

What’s instructive about this tale is that the woman had no idea what Alan was thinking. He recovered quickly enough to say “thank you” and enter into conversation on her terms, not his. Anavah begins with a state of mind. It is not about self-effacement or false modesty. Rather, it’s an outlook on life that acts like a stoplight, telling us when to move ahead and when to hold back.  “No more than my space, no less than my place.”

If Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world, then it’s a time to consider our place among the entire human family. Coming to the end of Elul, I hope that I am better prepared to enter these holy days with humility.

I hope you will take a moment to listen to this song by Israeli singer Yael Naim, who made it famous several years ago as the soundtrack to an ad for the Apple MacBook Air. This song really has nothing to do with Apples or technology or television. I offer it to you in the waning hours of Elul as an expression of my hope for all of us and for our world in the year ahead.

I’m a new soul

I came into this strange world

Hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take.

But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear

Finding myself making every possible mistake.

I’m a young soul in this very strange world

Hoping I could learn a bit about what is true and fake.

But why all this hate?

Try to communicate

Finding trust and love is not always easy to make.

This is a happy end

‘Cause you don’t understand

Everything you have done.

Why’s everything so wrong?

This is a happy end

Come and give me your hand

I’ll take you far away.

I’m a new soul I came into this strange world

Hoping I could learn a bit about how to give and take.

But since I came here

Felt the joy and the fear

Finding myself making every possible mistake.

New soul…in this very strange world…every possible mistake

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes….