Below is teaching of Chaplain (Rabbi to be) Adam Ruditsky in conjunction with the book Preparing for the High Holidays
רפואה מן התורה
Chose this day life and good, death
and evil (Dt. 30:15)
I do not think any of us do anything
unless we find value in it. Benjamin the
Righteous, when confronted by a widow with four sons, had compassion and
helped them in their time of need. Then
when he lay on his sick bed dying we read the famous verse, “one who
preserves a single life ... it is as if the whole world was preserved” (Avot
D’Rabbai Natan, chapter 4). In our story
God remembers Benjamin the Righteous because of his act of compassion; at the
beseeching of the angels, for God’s mercy, 22 years were added to life of Benjamin the Righteous.
It is doubtful that Benjamin the Righteous did what he did for self-gain
more so than it was just the right thing to. Doing the right thing is about making the choice
to do so with no other qualifications than it is just right. As we approach the Holidays we self-reflect
and make the needed corrections and/or adjustments between God, others and self
- also because it is the right thing to do. Our challenge; look deep inside and make
changes that will impact the future. No
one makes us do that, it is always about choice, but choice with a purpose.
Repentance is an act of belief in
the future
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