NEVER TOO LATE - DROP BY DROP - A REFLECTION

Dear Family,

Hope everyone is well and had a Good Rosh Hashana.

Many members of our Family are also doing lots of travelling to be with different members of Family and extended Family and we wish all enjoyable flights.

Something came to my notice last week, and I thought that it was important , and wanted to share it.

This time of year, before, during and after Rosh Hashana. Is a time for REFLECTION.

A Reflection of looking back at the past year, and thereafter making resolutions for the New Year.

I find it interesting how appropriate this is for this time of the year, it being Autumn, when the energies of Creation (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) are quietening down as we head into the quiet of Winter.

It is a custom in Lubavitch to look back at the 12 months of the previous Year in the last 12 days of Elul in preparation for Rosh Hashana

I have over the years grown a system whereby I think through each week on Saturday night, Motzei Shabbos, and I write a few notes about this.

At the end of the year I gather all these 50 + notes and arrange them in month order.

This gives me the opportunity to look back at the year more clearly.

But what struck me last week was 3 things:

1. The day when I went to visit the Beis Olam last week, I had a few months to catch up, and I decided to reflect on these months while driving there.

And I could not remember anything what happened in this period of the year, no matter how hard I tried. It was so vague and hazy.

This made me realise how important my notes were - all those small weekly acts, when they are done in a consistent and regular manner.

Over the year this added up to give me a powerful view of the whole year, which would have been lost without those efforts.

2. Everyone knows that when a tree grows, it lays down a new circle each year

And so as we consider each circle of our own year, we can come to an accurate summary of our behaviour to label that circle, and to make the appropriate resolution on how best to advance in the New Year.

We could also label each circle which gives us an even longer term look at how we are progressing over many years.

And the beauty is, THAT IT IS NEVER TOO LATE. We can start now.

3. This also showed me the power of a Project

One can choose any long term Project of ones fancy, and if one will dedicate a small period to it each day, or each week, or each month, then we will be amazed at how big it grows each Year.

One can choose the amount of time that is comfortable, and then discipline oneself to move forward DROP BY DROP (this was what Rabi Akiva learnt when he saw water dripping on a stone in a cave, and the soft drop of water was making a hole in the hard stone over a long period. This encouraged him to start learning Torah from 'scratch' at the age of 40, to become one of the greatest of our Torah giants, and returning home with 24000 students)

Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos and Gut Yom Kippur

Rambam 5 Minutes per week is Sefer Tahara - Book 10, Hilchos Shear Avot Hatuma Chaps 9-15, Page 22 in Short Summary

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Hub4PlNwQtRe35VHCtu6SvuJcLSXD8bxKyb6MLX -y4/edit