A High Holy Day message

I do not own a global positioning device. It is not that I am cheap; after all, GPS devices have fallen precipitously in price and, for me, it might even be a tax deductible expense.

The reasons why I do not possess a GPS are several-fold:

First, using a GPS would be an insult to my manhood. As a true male, I never ask for directions, and to even think that I would accept directions from some mechanical device is beyond the realm of possibility.

Second, I am fortunately blessed with what my family calls “The Androphy Sense of Direction” that I inherited from my parents. Growing up I can recall my father driving us wherever we had to go, and always arriving to our exact destination without getting lost. My mother is pretty good in that regard, too. As my wife can tell you, when we travel anywhere — even to parts of the country and parts of the world that we have never visited before — I can get us to precisely where we are going without getting lost. So much so in fact that I must exude an aura of knowing my way around because locals frequently stop and ask me for directions, and I can usually answer them correctly.

Third, I can read a map; a skill that young people today learn with decreasing frequency.

Fourth, I understand that while two wrongs don’t make a right, three lefts invariably do.

Fifth, I do my homework ahead of time and check out directions online before departing. Then I can determine the best way to get where I'm going.

I must admit, however, that there is one feature of a GPS unit that I do think is quite beneficial. (And I do not speak from personal experience using a GPS, but rather as an observation from once riding with someone who does rely on a GPS).

The feature of the GPS that I think is extremely beneficial is its ability to recalculate one’s directions. Let’s say you are driving from point A to point B and the GPS tells you to make a right turn. For whatever the reason — maybe there was traffic in the lane next to yours and you couldn’t move over in time — you missed the right turn that you were supposed to make. What will your GPS do? It will quickly recalculate your position, devise an alternate path for you to follow to reach your destination and immediately issue you commands on how to redirect yourself. Right?

The Jewish High Holy Days are supposed to be precisely like this feature. If somehow we have become lost; if we have made a wrong turn, a bad decision, an unwise choice; if we have chosen the wrong route or a self-destructive path the High Holy Day season provide us with the opportunity to reorient ourselves, to determine the direction we should be heading, to recalculate our position and to redirect ourselves towards our destination.

How does a GPS device work? There are three basic components.

One, the actual in-car instrument itself, containing all the software one needs for the receiver to be operational, including a large digital library of maps.

Two, an array of Global Positioning Satellites parked in orbit thousands of miles above the earth. These Global Positioning Satellites help the receiver pinpoint with incredible accuracy where a person or car is located.

Three, a method of communication between the GPS receiver in the automobile and the Global Positioning Satellites circling the earth. GPS systems use high-frequency radio waves for this purpose.

During the High Holy Day season we are to focus on how we can repent of the wrongs we may have committed in the past year and how we can be better in the coming year. This is our opportunity to engage in what the Rabbis called a heshbon hanefesh –— an accounting of our lives. In the words of the Yom Kippur prayer book, we must ask ourselves, What are we? What is the purpose of our lives? In what direction are we heading? And is it the proper direction?

The High Holy Day season is our opportunity to imitate our GPS device and recalculate where we want to be and how we are to attain our goals and reach our spiritual destinations.

And, when you think about, we can employ the same three component parts that a car’s GPS utilizes.

Just as a GPS uses an array of satellites to determine its position, so, too, we have something overhead that can guide us. We call that entity “God.” God knows where we are, not just geographically, but spiritually as well. But more than that, God is our source of guidance. He has determined the proper route for us to follow. He has set goals for us — moral, ethical and ritual — towards which He desires, even commands. us to strive. But God is even more than an inanimate global positioning satellite; God is a living entity who cares about us, and, as Jewish tradition teaches, will even meet us more than halfway in order for us to become realigned with Him.

Second, just as a car possesses a GPS device that receives information from the satellites, so, too, do we have receivers. In fact, we are those receivers. Just as GPS devices contain an enormous amount of complex software, in a sense, do we humans contain an incredible amount of software. We call it our brain. Just as a GPS contains a vast digital library of maps, we, in a sense, possess a vast a library of maps that tell us where we should be. The only problem is that many of us forget what is contained in that library, or we ignore it.

Which leads me to the third similarity. Just as a GPS uses high-frequency radio waves to communicate with the global positioning satellites hovering thousands of miles above earth, we have a path of communication with our global positioning satellite, God.

Actually it is a two-fold avenue of communication.  As Jews we believe that God communicates with us via the Torah. And here I use the word “Torah” in its wider meaning: not just the Torah itself (the first five books of the Bible), but also all Jewish sacred literature, which, essentially, is commentary on the Torah. When we open ourselves to the words of Torah, when we study the words of Torah, when we allow Torah’s values and lessons to permeate our lives, we are receiving God’s instructions and directions. And we, in turn, can communicate with God via prayer.

We have all the ingredients in order to reorient ourselves. We have God, we have Torah and we have ourselves. We just have to turn on our internal GPS device, receive God’s instructions via Torah and then recalculate the direction we are heading so that we can proceed correctly down the road of life.

Shana Tova! – Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!