September 10, 2023|כ"ד אלול ה' אלפים תשפ"ג The Power of New vs. the Power of Now
Print ArticleThis week many people posted on social media about their child’s first day of school. Some of us teachers also posted on social media about our first day of school. So how do the teachers feel and how do the students feel? Only ten months left until summer vacation! Maybe. But I think that there’s a feeling of newness, that we are starting fresh, starting new. Let’s say we may not have had a great year last year as a student. Maybe we are thinking about a fresh start when we will pay attention more in class or we will have better study habits. I think the same is true for us teachers, or at least I feel this way. I was happy with a lot of my classes, but there were certain areas that I thought required some improvement, so now that I am starting a new year, I am employing new teaching strategies and I revamped my curriculum a bit and I have hope that I can improve upon my performance this coming year.
There’s something exciting, something appealing, about something new and there is so much promise and so much hope whenever we start something new. But what creates the newness? Well, when it comes to school, we have a two-month summer break from school so we start anew in September. Let’s say we switch jobs so we start anew and make some changes in our professional routine. If we move to a new community then we start fresh with new routines in our new community. Whenever we start something new, we take advantage of the break from the old and the opportunity that is new to come with a fresh perspective and a clean slate.
But how does this work with teshuva? Here we are, preparing for Rosh Hashana, starting to think about how we can do better and be better, but we don’t have that break, that time out, in our lives. How does teshuva work in general? Yesterday we did something wrong so how can we change and start anew when we don’t have the two-month time out to reflect and regroup? How can we create that feeling of newness with teshuva each and every day when we tend to feel the same old, same old each and every day?
About 25 years ago, a spiritual teacher and self-help author by the name of Eckhart Tolle published a book called, “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.” He spent so many late nights wondering what made his life seem so unbearable. He thought about this problem and he somehow was able to stop worrying and focus on the moment. He wrote a book about the solution to his problem and this book became a New York Times bestseller in 2000 after Oprah Winfrey fell in love with it and recommended it.
His essential message contained three points. First, life is just a series of present moments. Tolle believed that the only important time that we should think about is the present. The past is nothing more than all present moments that have gone by and the future is just a collection of present moments waiting to arrive. Therefore, living in any moment other than the present is useless.
Second, all pain is a result of resistance to the things we cannot change. We think a lot about the future and the past and have no means to change many things from the future and the past about which we are unhappy. This can often cause anxiety and anger.
Third, we can free ourselves from pain by constantly observing our mind and not judging our thoughts. Next time we have that voice in our head that says, “You should have done better,” listen to that voice, accept that it’s there, but don’t act on it. Don’t judge it. Realize that it’s there, but don’t let it affect you. This is the power of now. Forget the past. There’s nothing you can do about it. Don’t worry about the future. Just focus on the present and enjoy the present!
The problem with the power of now is that it tells us to ignore negative emotions and it tells us that the less we have of them, the better. We walk around basking in the now and thinking that everything is great, without realizing that maybe we made mistakes in the past and we need to deal with those mistakes. By erasing the past, we don’t learn from the past. Negative emotions can also contain a positive message, a message that we need to change. If we only focus on the power of now, we lose the power of new, because we see no reason to change. After all, everything is wonderful.
Clearly our Jewish tradition rejects the power of now. We do not believe in ignoring the past or not worrying about the future. All the steps of teshuva according to the Rambam, of remorse over the past and resolve for the future point to the fact that we do not live only in the now. So the question remains. How then do we feel the newness that invites us to change from one day to the next? How do we fight the feeling of same old same old such that we are stuck in a rut unable to change? How do we tap into the power of new while rejecting the power of now?
The first thing we need to do is to appreciate where we are in life and not to be so down on ourselves, even if it’s difficult to change. Let’s not be too hard on ourselves all the time. Moshe turns to the people in the beginning of this week’s parsha and says, “Atem nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Hashem Elokeichem” – you are all standing today tall, erect – nitzavim, in front of God. This proclamation follows the end of last week’s parsha when the Bnei Yisrael just heard in horrific and graphic detail what would happen should they not obey God. Rashi quotes the midrash that after Moshe listed curse after curse and “horiku pneihem” – their faces melted, “v’amru mi yukhal la-amod ba-elu” – and they said who can stand up to this challenge? So Moshe tells them, “atem nitzavim” – don’t just stand – the word for stand is “omed” – but he says, “atem nitzavim.” You are standing tall, standing erect, do not feel crushed or paralyzed despite what you heard. And this is the first step to change, to achieving newness. Don’t ignore the past, but don’t only look for the bad in the past. We’ve had ups and downs, but we made it. We are here. We have done a lot of good in the past year. With all the talk of teshuva, of repenting, of repairing our relationship with God, let us also take a moment and take pride in our accomplishments of the past year, as well.
However, “hayom” doesn’t only ask us to look at the past, to realize that, yes, we made it. The Midrash Aggadah interprets the word “hayom” in the pasuk “vhayu hadvarim ha’eileh asher anokhi metzavkha hayom” in the shema paragraph – these things that I command you today – that “l’olam yihyu chadashim etzl’cha k’ilu hayom nitztaveita aleihem” - the observance of our mitzvoth should be new as if we were commanded about them today. Every day we must see ourselves as standing at Sinai being commanded anew. And maybe Moshe is also telling the Bnei Yisrael “atem nitzavim hayom” – not just that you made it, but realize that our excitement for God should always be as if we were first commanded today. Tap into the power of “hayom.” Tap into the power of new.
What is so new about today? How is it different than yesterday? I was always somewhat bothered by the line we say in the davening that God is “mechadesh b’tuvo b’chol yom tamid maaseh breishit” – that God constantly is engaged in creating anew each and every day. Every day is a new creation by God. But what does that mean? God set up a world that runs according to scientific principles. Obviously, He could change those principles and cause the world to cease to exist whenever He wants, but where is the newness each and every day? God created a system that runs regularly, but is that new?
I think that the message of the newness of creation is that newness is not what we think. It’s not that there is necessarily some new physical reality today that didn’t exist yesterday. After all, in Kohelet we read, “ain chadash tachat ha-shemesh” – there is nothing new under the sun. While there is reliability and predictability in the regular phenomena that we observe, in reality every moment is a new opportunity for us in how we relate to that phenomena. Every day, every week, and, in truth, every moment is brand new, brimming with freshness, vitality and renewal.
New does not require only now. It does not require neglecting the past. It reminds us that we constantly can change the past by how we relate to it, with a new perspective, a new understanding, and a fresh, new way of looking at things. Ma-aseh breishit is constantly being renewed by the opportunities that we have to relate to it!
The way we go about it is by committing to being a constant learner. To truly look at life as a journey. To reflect on the past, but not to get too down on ourselves, to be curious about why what we did and how perhaps we can take a different path next time.
I have told the following story before, but it is worth repeating. Each evening before he went to sleep it was the custom of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev to take a heshbon hanefesh, that is, to examine his thoughts and deeds for that day. If he found a blemish in them, he would say to himself, “Levi Yitzchak will not do that again.” Then he would chide himself, “Levi Yitzchak, you said the same thing yesterday.” Then he would reply, “Yesterday, Levi Yitzchak did not speak the truth. Today he speaks the truth.”
Feel the newness of each and every day and each and every moment. Cultivate curiosity, be more mindful of the present moment, make small changes to your daily routine, set daily goals, learn something new every day and at dinner every day reflect on something new that you learned. Challenge yourself. Perhaps keep a daily journal. Use daily tefilla as an opportunity to reflect upon something new that you did or that you are planning to do. It may be easier to take a two month break to feel that newness that invites the willingness to change. But even without a two-month break, I invite you to tap into the “hayom,” the belief in the constant renewal of creation without ignoring the past or the future. May God grant us success to achieve this feeling especially during this time of year.