Episode Details

 You Don’t Need to Know How the Book Ends — A Birthday, Rosh
Hodesh Elul & Parashat Shoftim 

Yesterday
was my secular birthday. Today is my Hebrew birthday. And tonight is Rosh
Hodesh Elul. In this morning’s Breakfast & a Class,
we used that unusual convergence to ask a question that becomes more meaningful
with every passing year: What are we supposed to do with the time HaShem gives
us? We remembered my dear friend David Golden, who passed away last year the
day after his 110th birthday, and the remarkable way he continued to appreciate
every additional day of life. Hazal teach that there is something special about
the day of one’s birth—but perhaps the real question is not what blessing can I
receive today, but what am I supposed to do with another year that HaShem has
given me? 

From
there, this morning’s Breakfast & a Class
turned to an extraordinary cassette tape I received when I was eighteen—an
astrological reading of my future that I refused to listen to until decades
later, when Rabbi Abittan, z”l, suggested we hear it together. Its astonishing
accuracy led to an unforgettable lesson from the Rabbi and directly into this
week’s Parashat Shoftim: תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה עִם ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ — walk wholeheartedly with
HaShem. Elul asks us to
look honestly at yesterday, but the Torah warns us not to become obsessed with
knowing tomorrow. We don’t need to know how the book ends. We need the wisdom
to learn from the pages already written, the faith to leave the unopened pages
with HaShem, and the strength to make today’s page worth reading.