Write Your Own Fate into the Book of Life
During the Days of Awe – And Every Day 

On the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, Jews are told that God's write their fate in the Book of Life and on Yom Kippur that fate is sealed. Yet, the holiday liturgy also says that acts of repentance, prayer and charity can alter God's decree. This statement leaves one wondering how much influence we have on our one lives. If we can do things that seem to "change the Divine Mind," as it were, can we impact our lives in general? How much of our lives is left to free choice and how much to destiny? Are we cocreators of our lives or does God make all the decisions?

I believe we cocreate our lives with God. I believe that we are given free choice and free will, and by combining our thoughts, feelings and actions we write the pages of our Book of Life each day -- with a little help from the Divine Hand. Whether you are Jewish or not, the Days of Awe, also know as the High Holy Days, are a wonderful time to take do some personal visioning and write in your Book of Life.

Try this brief meditation to inscribe yourself for another day, week or year of glorious life. Imagine a beautiful book, a quill pen and a jar of ink lying on a table before you. You open the book and find that it contains the story of your life up to this very moment. You turn the page and discover that tomorrow's entry and the next and the next are empty. The pages are a beautiful while, waiting for someone to write down the details of what you will do next, what will happen next... You pick up the quill, dip it in the ink and begin to write. Imagine not only the next moment, hour, day, but the next week, month and year. Write it down in the Book of Life as if it is already happening. As you inscribe each word, feel as if you are experiencing all that you are writing -- as if each event you are describing is happening to you at this moment. As you finish your entry or entries, you see a piece of paper lying ready for you to blot the ink and seal it. As you do so, you get the strong sensation of all that you have written already having happened -- as if it was written in the past rather than the future tense -- and you feel great joy flood your being. You gently close the book and notice that it has a lock on it's side. You push the lock closed, sealing the book closed. End your meditation by saying, "May it be God's will."

If you like to do rituals, here's one that allows you to write your destiny in y our own Book of Life every day: Purchase a blank journal and dedicate it to writing visions of each day. Each evening or each morning, light a candle and some incense and state your intention to "write your life in your book of life." Then spend 10 or 15 minutes writing down exactly how you want your day to unfold. When you are done, write at the bottom of the page, "This or something better is now coming to me for the highest good of all concerned. So be it, so it is, and may it be God's will."  

What’s Archery Got to Do with the Jewish High Holy Days? 

Sept. 12, 2007  

Did you know that the word for sin in Hebrew - chet - comes from the sport of archery? So does the word Torah, which refers to the Old Testament scrolls and the text they contain.

When on Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, Jews all over the world recite over and over again in the holiday liturgy the words "al chet," which are usually translated as "the sin," what they are really saying is "the missed mark." Hebrew has no real word for sin. There are one or two other words that refer to what we think of as sin, but none that actually mean "sin" per se.

The word Torah means to take aim. Thus, the Torah teaches us to take aim. And sometimes we take aim and miss the mark.

Why do we Jews use archery terminology for such important words? After all, sins are not something to be taken lightly and the Torah is the sacred text of Judaism. Maybe the reason lies in the analogy that can be made between an archer and a person repenting for wrongs committed. Archery involves setting up targets in the middle of which are the bull's eyes at which the archer aims his arrows. To hit the "mark," an archer must practice her aim until she becomes good enough to hit not only the target but the bulls eye. On Yom Kippur, Jews look at the past 12 months of their lives to see what targets they set up for themselves, how they practiced hitting that target and if their aim was true. They look at the target to see if they managed to hit the bull's eye. During this period of introspection they notice not only if they aimed their arrows and shot, but if they even got close to their mark. If not, the period between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur provides a time to set up new targets - or reexamine or study old targets and to commit to practicing their aim. It's also a time to set the intention - kavanah (another word that, while not related to archer, also means "to aim") -- to try harder to shoot true - to hit the bulls eye this year.

What's the bull's eye? Judaism has 613 mitzvot (commandments), and while observant Jews try to hit them all, most Jews do not. All those mitzvot are meant to help us sharpen our aim. Torah teaches us how to aim in a righteous manner and in a spiritual manner. And each time we aim and shoot, each time we try to hit the target by performing a mitzvah (singular of mitzvot), we remember God. We aim towards God. If we hit the bull's eye or even come close, we actually connect with God. That's what Torah and mitzvot are all about.

No wonder at this time of year we talk in archery terms. Al chet...the marks I missed last year. Torah...the target towards which I want to aim this year.