The High Holy Days are coming up soon; next                                month in fact.
SelicothThe                                evening of September 12 is Selicoth for us Jews.                                The name, Selicoth, is derived from the Hebrew                                word meaning, "I am sorry." From the beginning of                                the month of Elul - Friday, August 21 - until                                Selicoth is a time for taking stock of ourselves                                and making amends with those we have harmed in any                                way, great or small.
Rosh Ha                                Shana
Rosh Ha Shana begins at                                sundown on September 18, and ends at sundown on                                September 20. On these days we celebrate the new                                year of the Earth and the birth of                                Humankind.
Each year                                many of us do Tashlich as part of Rosh Ha Shana,                                throwing our sins into the water on pieces of                                bread, only to find that those same sins jumped                                out of the water and into our back pockets when we                                weren't looking. In your Jewish Spiritual Renewal                                you learn how to rid yourself of character                                defects, resentments, grudges, etc., for good. Are                                you on your path to Renewal and recapturing your                                Judaism?
Yom                                KippurWe go to Yom Kippur services,                                starting the evening of September 27 and ending at                                sundown on the 28th, and beat our chests as we                                rattle off an alphabetic list of sins. Some we                                have, some we don't. While we go through the list,                                many of us want to change, but by the next day, or                                definitely by Sukkoth, our selfish will - our ego                                - has taken over and we are back to where we were                                before Selicoth. 
You can rid yourself of                                behavior that sets you apart from G!d and from                                your fellows. 
You can tell your yetzer ha                                ra to get lost when it rationalizes that it is                                okay to do things that the "still small voice''                                inside of you knows you'd be better off not doing.                                
There is further commentary on how to                                make the High Holy Days a more personal, spiritual                                experience (Chapter 13), and lessons on casting                                away your character defects, or Tashlich (Chapter                                6), in my book, 
The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual                                Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern                                Jew. If you don't have a copy and would                                like one, you can get it here:                                
Let                                us all make this New Year a truly 
new year and may                                we all be inscribed into the Book of                                Life.