Yom Kippur morning--September 22, 2007 / 10 Tishri 5768

Six weeks ago I put a book on reserve at the public library.  Usually I get reserve books within a few days, but weeks passed, so I stopped by the library to ask the status.  The librarian checked the computer and told me that I was number 124 on a waiting list of 160 people.  “Wow!” I said, “It’s going to be a while!”  “Not necessarily,” he said, “because we have 88 copies of the book in circulation.”

You might well ask, “What book is this?!”  It’s called [whisper] The Secret.  How many of you have heard of it? 

This book is currently the New York Time’s number-one best seller in the “Hardcover Advice” category.  It’s been on the list 35 weeks.  The book is a follow-up to a DVD by the same name that is also a best-seller through new-age bookstores, certain churches and word of mouth.

The Secret is new packaging of an ancient way of thinking.  The philosophy is based on a principle called “the Law of Attraction.”  The idea is that our feelings and our thoughts can directly influence events in the world.  We can “attract” those things that we want through intention, through visualization, through--this might sound familiar--the power of positive thinking.   The essence of the Law of Attraction involves three simple steps:  ask, believe, and receive.

Here’s a testimonial that was quoted in Time Magazine last December (12/28/06):  "I was resistant at first," says … a [woman] who saw the DVD…. "But after watching it, I decided to play a game. I was late for a yoga class and I thought about a particular place in the room next to a wall that I wanted to be in. When I got there, the space was open. I went through the rest of the day smiling to myself and thinking, this stuff works.”

A kid who was portrayed in the DVD must have also thought it works.  He cut out a picture of a spiffy red bike that he wanted, he concentrated really hard on the picture, and lo-and-behold he received the bike as a gift.

The backers of the DVD admit that they deliberately set out to make “wealth enhancement” a major element of the project.  I guess this is good news for the kid and his new bicycle, but it is also one of the main problems with The Secret:  its Law of Attraction is mainly about material acquisition.  The DVD actually encourages the viewer to see “the Universe [as] ‘a catalog’ that we can flip through and shop.” 

Evidently there are enough people in this country who believe the message of The Secret and are attracted to the Law of Attraction to make the DVD and book best sellers.  I can’t say whether or not it works, but I find the message of The Secret to run counter to Jewish values in several important ways. 

First, it focuses on individual needs--one might even say individual greeds.  Judaism is concerned with the community and with ways that each of us can contribute to the benefit of all. 

The Secret emphasizes acquiring material things, which is counter to Jewish teachings such as “Who is rich?  The one who is content with his portion.”  

Also, The Secret suggests our emotions and thoughts will get us what we want.  Judaism teaches that what counts are our deeds, not our thoughts.  I am struck by the contrast between this best selling book and the message of the High Holy Days, which asks us to reflect on how we can live a meaningful life, a purposeful, ethical life.

Arnold Eisen, the new chancellor of the Conservative movement’s rabbinic school in New York, expressed this well in his Rosh Hashanah message:  “As I sit in shul each Rosh Hashanah, the shofar seems to be calling out to me with one question above all: am I using my time correctly? We don't know how much of it we have. The liturgy insistently reminds us of this. It urges us to consider whether the time we do have is well-spent. We for our part crave assurance that we are walking on a path that leads to good and blessing.” (http://www.jtsa.edu/x5536.xml)

On Rosh Hashanah I invited us to do a similar kind of introspection.  I suggested we spend these Ten Days of Awe asking ourselves the question “Who am I?”  This question asks us to look at our soul traits, our essence, our special gifts.  We are not talking about what we do well, but what is deeper in us that causes us to do well.  For example, an answer to “Who am I?” would not be “I’m a good cook,” but might be the deeper quality: “I am someone who serves and nurtures others.” 

To answer the question “Who am I?” takes humility of a special kind:  the humility of telling the truth.  We are not bragging nor are we being overly modest.  We are simply claiming the truth about ourselves.  Being able to state that truth is already a great accomplishment. 

But let’s not stop there!  Answering the question “Who am I?” gives us the insight to begin setting our intentions for the coming year.  Yom Kippur is the culmination of these Ten Days of Teshuvah.  We are given a time to review the past year, make amends, ask for forgiveness and in turn forgive.  Our prayers for the rest of today continue this theme, but our thoughts at the same time begin to turn to the year to come. 

We ask ourselves:  Will I use my time wisely?  Does the path I am on lead to good and blessing?  When faced with choices, what will guide me? 

A conscious, deliberate knowledge of who we are in the most truthful--and positive--sense is a compass which can guide us in the year ahead. 

Earlier I spoke about The Secret with its focus on attracting things we want through thinking and visualization.  In contrast, the Jewish approach is deeds rather than thoughts, contributing to the world rather than getting things from it.  As we come to see the answer to “Who am I?” we then should ask:  “How am I going to express this specifically, tangibly, in the year to come?”

I propose that we each set an intention for the year to come, based on who we are.  An intention that helps us expand, that puts us on the right path, that makes a difference in the world. 

The one who says, “I am someone who serves and nurtures others,” may create the intention to volunteer at a food bank distribution site.  The person who says “I am a compassionate listener” might state the intention to find a job that makes good use of that precious gift. 

Whatever our own unique soul gifts are, this day of all days is the time to set our intention about how these gifts will guide us in the coming year.  Recognizing the intention privately is how we begin; stating the intention aloud to someone else is the first step to making it real.

Let’s take a few moments of silent reflection as we begin to identify that specific intention for the coming year that allows each of us to express who we are, in a specific, tangible way.  (pause)

And now take another moment to think about who you will share your intention with.

May 5768 be a year of wise choices, a year of good deeds and blessing, a year when we share with the world all that is best within us.

Amen