Greetings friends
 
It is hard to believe, but we are halfway through August; Summer is fleeing, the fall is almost upon us, Brett’s baby is almost one, and we are a month from the high holy days of self-examination and introspection – the days of awe.
 
You know, I’m pretty sure I just observed them just a year ago, and I did my examination and introspection – surely, I’m good to go.  Aren’t you?
 
Some of the events of life we notice – like those changes of season and some we need time to sit back and observe, like the age of reason and the industrial revolution – both of which took centuries but propelled man eons.  Who were we to know we were creating climate change?  Haven’t we since Prometheus shared fire with man?
We did not know better, but at least now we do.
 
Other things are less noticeable.  We have a harder time noticing the ages of man – Leo; Capricorn; Aquarius –but they are, after all, 2,160 years long, so the best you get in your life is about 4% of an age, and we certainly do not get to observe the great platonic year in which the constellations and fixed stars return to their starting point every 25,920 years.  In order to appreciate those great leaps of time or faith, watch a gyroscope.  They move pretty quickly and wobble like the earth’s axis, and every few seconds, they return to their starting point.  You are observing what G0d observes in the great Platonic year.
Talk about slow motion!
 
And talk about slow – we can be slow learners.
It turns out we learn best through stories, and we retain the information we get from stories 11 X more than any other way.  Our lives are story episodes – our rise; sometimes our fall; our troubles; our victories; our fears; our accomplishments – these are the stories of your life.  These are the episodes we review during the ten days of awe commencing with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur – when we seek to be inscribed in the book for a good year.  These are also the stories we should be sharing on Passover when we can stand as a living example of freedom from oppression for those around us who need inspiration, guidance, and encouragement.
 
This week we read about the system of judges again and that justice and judgment need go hand in hand – they should be the same, but too often, they aren’t.  We are focused on winning, not justice; we are prone to bribery and favoritism. 

Yes - judgment and justice – you cannot have one without the other, and to ensure it - we must avoid the flattery of ego, which blinds vision and distorts wisdom and which, unfortunately, is too prevalent. We can be too easily blinded and influenced.
 
And we are reminded that a mechanism must exist to examine all law – ethical, spiritual, ritualistic, religious, and governing and when we are unsure – examine and be prepared to make the necessary changes – get the words of the wise and adjust.
 
There is another underlying theme as we are reminded there are property boundaries which is the metaphor for the boundaries we set in our lives.  Those are the truest boundaries of all.  They are the ones that determine health or dis-ease.  And this reading reminds us of that, and yet there are only two great examples of it – the writing of the Talmud and the great commentaries of the middle ages.  We must encourage new thought in every age because the circumstances of man change, and the application of law must be prepared to change with it.

RD