Can you 10Q?


I subscribe to a great website called “My Jewish Learning.com.” Although I have spent many years in Jewish learning I believe that, no matter how much you have studied Judaism and the Jewish people, there is always something new to learn. This website sends a daily message filled with all sorts of off-the-beaten-path Jewish news and information. Like everything I receive in my e-mail, sometimes I read it but sometimes I just delete it feeling that I am way too busy to ever go through all the “junk” my in box can hold on any given day. The other day one of the messages caught my eye because I could not figure out what it meant. It read “10Q: Reflect, React, Renew for Rosh Hashanah.”
Being a congregational rabbi for thirty years I had that old familiar feeling that comes every fall. Hmmm… what should I talk about this year? You would think that after thirty years it would get easier but it doesn’t. I still sit in front of a blank piece of paper (or computer screen) and wonder how I can best use my three magic wishes. Wishes? Well, I wish to give three great sermons that will send everyone out of the synagogue better than they were when they came in. Yes, better in every way- better people, better Jews, better inhabitants of this tiny planet. (Is that too much to ask for?) Once I opened the “10Q” e-mail I knew it could help all of us fulfill our wishes.
“10Q” is short for 10 Questions. I quote from the e-mail: “10Q is a national project that asks people to answer a question a day online for 10 days during the High Holidays. It offers a new way for Jews and people of all backgrounds to slow down and reflect. Answers are emailed to a secure online vault just after Yom Kippur; next year, just before Rosh Hashanah starts, answers are sent back to participants and the whole process begins again.”
Take one of the questions, “Is there something that you wish you had done differently this year?” Where would your answer begin? The High Holiday period is meant to be one of spiritual correction- getting back on the right path. What better way than to answer some important questions about your life? With 10Q you can’t just answer them and then forget about it- the magic of technology will make sure that your answers come back to you next year! It is all too easy to forget our goals, to make excuses for our shortcomings, or to just forget the things we really wanted to do.
Next week we start a brand new year. None of us can be sure what it will bring but we can be sure, through introspection, that we know how we plan to shape those events that we can control. Consider joining the 10Q project- make a little personal time capsule – a snapshot of your hopes at this moment. In a year compare what you have done- just the resolve to do it will put you on a better path.