Dear ORT Friends and Leaders,
In these few days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jewish tradition asks something of us that is both simple and extraordinarily difficult: to conduct a cheshbon nefesh, an accounting of the soul.
It’s not just a review of what happened over the past year; it’s an honest accounting of who we’ve been. Have I been the person I hoped I would be? Have I done the things I said mattered to me? Where did I fall short? Where did I do better than I expected? Whom did I hurt, intentionally or unintentionally? Whom did I fail to help when I could have? And perhaps most importantly: what do I want to change?
The language of the Yom Kippur Machzor (prayer book) pushes us toward this kind of honesty. In the Al Chet, we confess not only specific things we’ve done, but also things we failed to do, through carelessness, through stubbornness, through words, through our treatment of others. The liturgy doesn’t allow us to imagine that our responsibilities end with our private selves.
That’s an important reminder. Because we don’t live only as individuals. We live as members of families, communities, institutions, and a Jewish people. And I think there’s another kind of cheshbon nefesh that we ought to undertake. What kind of community have we been? Have we treated one another with the dignity we expect for ourselves? Have we stood up for people who needed us? Have we used the opportunities we’ve been given to make a difference?
And, for those of us who are privileged to lead organizations, there’s another question: are we the organization we say we are? Have we lived up to the standards we set for ourselves? Have we used our resources responsibly? Have we listened carefully enough? Have we been courageous enough? Have we made the choices that serve our mission rather than simply the choices that are easiest?
At World ORT, these aren’t abstract questions. We’re entrusted with something that is much bigger than any one of us. For more than 145 years, ORT has been connecting Jewish communities, advancing Jewish education, and empowering the next generations. That mission gives us an obligation to keep asking whether we’re living up to it.
Maybe that’s why cheshbon nefesh is a constructive thing. It’s supposed to make us more honest about what we need to do next, rather than leaving us paralyzed by everything we got wrong. Yom Kippur asks us to acknowledge our shortcomings, but it also gives us the possibility of beginning again, and I really appreciate that.
So before we enter Yom Kippur, let’s take a few quiet minutes and ask: what am I proud of? What do I regret? Whom do I need to ask forgiveness from? What do I need to repair? And what will I do differently when the new year really begins?
May our cheshbon nefesh this Yom Kippur be honest enough to challenge us, humble enough to teach us, and hopeful enough to move us forward.
And may we all be written and sealed for a year of health, meaning, purpose, and peace.
Shabbat Shalom, and Gmar Chatima Tova,
Dov
Dov Ben-Shimon,
Chief Executive Officer, World ORT