As the High Holidays approach, it is easy to become confused between two seemingly conflicting ideas. On the one hand, there is the common conception of the Day of Judgment as a time of strict reckoning in which we are to search our past deeds with trepidation, to plead for forgiveness, and to resolve to be better in the year ahead. On the other hand, there is the consciousness of G-d’s unstinting love and beneficence and the recognition that whatever He decrees is absolutely for the best, even if it may seem in the moment to be challenging and severe.

Do I focus at this time on G-d’s judgment, or on His love? Do I wail and beat my chest and appeal for His mercy with promises of better behavior and compliance in the future; or do I breathe deeply and relinquish all fear with the awareness of His parental compassion and the certainty that “ein ra yored milemaala/no evil descends from above”?

Am I to let go of desires and expectations and welcome whatever G-d deems best for me in the year ahead? Or am I to visualize exactly what I desire for myself, my loved ones, and my world in the coming year and vow to G-d that I will do His will in hopes that my prayers will be fulfilled, as Rabban Gamleil says in Pirkei Avos, “do His will as though it were your will, so that He will do your will as though it were His”........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)