Our world, our lives

As a Rabbi I am always reminded of the beauty of life and its fragility. I can go from a moment of celebration to a time of sadness in a matter of minutes. Life is truly unpredictable. However one thing is clear to me. Our lives, while we don’t control the events, we control how we feel at any given occasion. It is now at this time of the year, when we, as Jews, examine our actions, and therefore our feelings toward the events in our lives. However, there is no doubt that the message of the Jewish High Holidays can be a universal one.

We can all look into our lives and actions and discover that when we direct our feeling towards a positive attitude and happiness life seems better. Even the challenges are faced with strength. The “magic” to a good life, and that’s what we, in the Jewish world, are reminded during this holidays, is that we need to always adjust and readjust our feelings and emotions. It is very difficult to see our world with a feeling of optimism and hope, but we must. We, in Judaism, believe that we control our feelings, and because of that we can make the world better. To quote [the late] Dr. Wayne Dyer “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”

This time of the year, Judaism offers a chance to change, for the better of course. I invite everyone, not matter what faith, to take a moment and look at our lives and change the way we feel about all the sad and negatives events in our lives. Let’s all, for the sake of our society, our community, change the way we feel, so that what we can make our lives better and with meaning.

With much hope and with a feeling of change, I wish for the Jewish community, as well as for everyone, a time of peace, a period of harmony and a change in our feelings. May we all control our feelings for a better life.

With hope and positive feelings I wish a Happy Jewish New Year and an easy winter.

Rabbi Uri Goren

Temple Avodah, Oceanside