As we prepare to enter the new year this coming Tuesday, the call of the hour is to reflect on the past year and consider how we can do even better in the year ahead.
It is inevitable that we will come across regrettable moments in the past year that we wish did not happen, whether something we said or did. But here is something essential to keep in mind as we go about this work:
At our core, each of us is pure and good.
Deep down, we all want to do the right thing. If we slipped at times over the past year, it was not because of who we truly are, but because of outside influences that got the better of us. That means our mistakes do not define us. We can let them go. What does define us is that we are each a child of the Almighty, full of light and love.
The best way to ensure that G-d too looks at us in that light is for us to look at others the same way. When we choose to see people not through the lens of their missteps but through the truth of who they are at the core, pure, innocent and filled with goodness, we help open the channel for G-d to view us likewise. G-d reciprocates our behavior toward others.
The Torah this week puts it powerfully: “You saw the abominations of Egypt… and your hearts turned away.” It was the outside influences only that distorted their true essence. Their hearts were pure, it was only what they saw that led them astray.
When we learn to see ourselves and others in their purest form, we clear the way for blessings, preparing us for a year ahead filled with light, love, and the fulfillment of our deepest dreams in 5786.