{"id":63673,"date":"2019-09-29T16:44:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T13:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63673"},"modified":"2019-09-29T16:44:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T13:44:24","slug":"the-days-of-awe-some","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-days-of-awe-some\/","title":{"rendered":"The Days Of Awe-Some"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"63673","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":63587,"related_cahpter":"320","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Special High Holiday feature","content":"

Another name for [this season] is \u201cthe Days of Awe,\u201d which refers not just to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but to the ten days between them. That\u2019s <\/em>how they\u2019re supposed to feel: awesome, in the being-in-touch-with-something-transcendent sense of the word\u2026.<\/p>\n

The holidays that take place during this period are supposed to break our hearts wide open, prompt a wrenching examination of our souls, and force us to come face-to-face with our own mortality. Dur\u00ading this season, we step back and ask ourselves: How\u2019s it going? Not in the meaningless small-talk sense of that question, when the response is always \u201cFine,\u201d but in the big existential sense that requires an honest answer and prompts further questions, like \u201cAm I a good person?\u201d and \u201cAm I living a good life?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026The sound of a shofar is both primitive and primal\u2014like a cross between sobbing, wailing, and a panicked plea for help. It is a sound you cannot ignore. Maimonides viewed it as a wake-up call, a kind of spiritual alarm clock set to go off in the fall of each year.<\/p>\n

What, exactly, are we waking up to? One answer can be found in this line from the Days of Awe liturgy: \u201cA great shofar sounds, and a still small voice is heard.\u201d This is a verse from the biblical story of the prophet Elijah, who encountered God on a mountaintop:<\/p>\n

“There was a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shat\u00adtering rocks by the power of the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind\u2014an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake\u2014fire; but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire\u2014a still small voice.”<\/p>\n

God was not in the powerful forces of nature, but in that still, small voice. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to wake up to during this Days of Awe season\u2014that quiet voice of conscience that says, \u201cWhat you did wasn\u2019t right\u201d; that voice of truth that says, \u201cThis isn\u2019t who you are or who you want to be.\u201d I\u2019ve heard it described as the voice in which our souls speak to us, and some call it the voice of the Divine.<\/p>\n

\u2026Fortunately, it is always possible to come back through a process known as \u201cteshuvah,\u201d which is sometimes translated as \u201crepentance,\u201d but really means \u201creturn.\u201d Blu Greenberg, drawing from the writings of Maimonides, describes this process as \u201cthe four Rs\u201d: \u201cRecognition of having done wrong. Regret. Resolution not to repeat. Restraining oneself in the face of the same temptation or opportunity that previously led to wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excerpt from Sarah Hurwitz,\u00a0Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life\u2014in Judaism (after\u00a0finally<\/u>\u00a0choosing to look there),<\/em>\u00a0Random House, 2019, p.\u00a0185-186.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63589,"id":63589,"title":"Sarah Hurwitz cover","filename":"Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/discovering-millions-of-pages-and-new-old-ideas\/sarah-hurwitz-cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"sarah-hurwitz-cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63586,"date":"2019-09-26 15:33:44","modified":"2019-10-22 16:15:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpt from \"Here All Along\"","main_caption":"The Days Of Awe-Some","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Special High Holiday feature","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":63589,"id":63589,"title":"Sarah Hurwitz cover","filename":"Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/discovering-millions-of-pages-and-new-old-ideas\/sarah-hurwitz-cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"sarah-hurwitz-cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63586,"date":"2019-09-26 15:33:44","modified":"2019-10-22 16:15:58","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63674,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63673\/revisions\/63674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}