aqua avicificis .93oaexcke Dance -) Sit Admit at the jewi/"311 gedexation o Ale,t,topolitan Deticie6 lath annittefoww- Join the JCC between September 13-27* and Save 25% • To find out how you can take advantage of this special offer, please call the JCC Membership Services Department in West Bloomfield (248) 661-7621 or in Oak Park (248) 967-4030. The first 200 people to sign up will receive a FREE 1998 ICC Maccabi tote bag! • iew1:-.11-11:;:xlerat ion (..),/ited Jewish .Fott.nclati,m, Mc, • Evt. Jcwbh Communit ∎ Center of Mini,kat Detroit The Heart of Our Neighborhood D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building 6600 W. Maple Road West Bloomfield, MI 48322 Jimmy Prentis Morris Building 15110 W. Ten Mile Road Oak Park, MI 48237 *Some restrictions may apply May not have been a JCC member in the past 12 months Olenn. AO. 9/18 1998 itulooft c Outclarpt livacks 46 Detroit Jewish' News a XaCtittethate concerned that I may have offended you. Please tell me whether you have felt hurt. And if you have, what can I do to heal this?" Then, and only then, can we hon- estly say: "I ask you to forgive me." If to you this sounds impossibly revealing, taking impossible chances, then you need to know there are actu- ally people who undertake this path in the days before the New Year. They are not saints, unless this practice by itself qualifies them. They are people who have cheated, insulted, exploded, maligned. Courage, it rakes; saintli- ness, not. As we move closer to Rosh Hashanah, we can prepare ourselves for Tashlich itself— though it need not be reserved for use only on the day of Rosh Hashanah. What does Tashlich add to the kind of seli- chot we have just described? It adds the earth, a river. In the traditional Tashlich, Jews have gone togeth- er on Rosh Hashanah afternoon to the near- est stream, there to toss a few bread crumbs into the run- ning water, reciting the verse V'tashlich bimtzulot yam ch. ol chatotam — "Into the depths of the sea will You cast all their misdeeds." Did the act of casting itself cleanse one of misdeeds? Of course not. It was the evocative connection to water, the sun, the earth, moving from human community inside the synagogue to the broader community of all earthly life, that helped people turn their lives in a new direction. What might it mean to transform, rather than eliminate, a misdeed? Suppose someone is feeling guilt over a shady financial transaction. There are several steps to achieving transfor- mation. If someone has been cheated, that person is entitled to restitution. Thinking about ethics and deciding the. transaction was unethical is neces- sary, but not enough. Feeling bad about it is necessary, but not enough. Acting to restore what has been stolen — that too is necessary. To move ourselves to a new level, we need to ask the question: What was at stake in my misdeed of cheat- ing? Simply more money? Why? One way to do Tashlich is to take several beans of different colors — green, red, white. At the.edge of the living waters, focus on discerning those misdeeds that have no redeeming value, those that stem from a life-oriented need and those that stem from sheer care- lessness. Assign one color to those behaviors that should simply be cast off, those that need transformation, those that need more thought during the next few weeks. Cast each bean with a focused intention for dealing with that behavior. But don't become a mere bean- counter. The 10 days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur are called the Days of Awe. Open yourself to awe. We can see that our own lives fit into a larger rhythm of the sun, the moon and earth. So we can take a larger view of the warmth and love and majesty the universe can offer us. When we see a majesty that includes us, we can respond not bro- ken in fear but uplifted in awe. Our own pride and our own shame can fade into the back- ground as we stand in the face of this majestic cycle. If this is what we have in mind as we enter Tashlich, we can experience a synagogue Tashlich in a deeper way. For many of us, one of the most awesome aspects of the Days of Awe is the unearthly shriek of the shofar. First calling out, "Awake!" then break- ing into wails and sobs. God's voice — and our own. Those of us who experienced it as children or came to it with "beginner's mind" as grown-ups may have had imprinted on our souls a moment when the eerie sound dissolved our very selves. Not a bad moment to re- experience, if we are seeking deep renewal. So one aspect of the shofar service is to open ourselves precisely to that moment of dissolving. As adults, we need not stop there. The traditional Rosh Hashanah ser- vice shows us three different facets of the shofar-blowing: Malchuyot, or majesty; Zichronot, or remembrance; and Shofarot. The prayerbook sets aside 10 biblical verses for each of these shofar-modes. When we look at the verses, we realize that * Malchuyot is majestic justice, the karma through which ill deeds bring their own punishment and decency its own reward; * Zichronot is remembering not in .