By Rabbi Mark Borovitz
As I sit here, in Bridgeport, Ct., getting ready for a weekend as a Scholar In Residence, I am in awe of where my life is today. I laugh at and pinch myself every day, realizing how awesome and crazy my life is. I get to hang out with smart, deep people; I am allowed into people’s lives to help celebrate joys and deal with sorrows. I am sought out for wisdom and comfort and I am able to live my whole self—good, bad and ugly—with everyone I meet.
I am grateful to and for the connection that I have with people I meet, like Ira Wise, who arranged for me to come here to Bridgeport. Ira is a learner, a teacher, a thinker and a bright Spirit. I met Ira along with five other people from the East Coast who came to Beit T’Shuvah as the first Cohort of our Elaine Breslow Addiction Institute. Ira, Yonni, Jodie, Grace, Evie and Lynn spent a week immersing themselves in/at Beit T’Shuvah to learn how to respond to the epidemic of addiction in their communities; addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, food, etc AND our addiction to hopelessness and despair. All six of these people enrich my life as we continue to learn from and with each other. How great is this life of mine!!
As we embark on Rosh HaShanah, I am thinking about and reflecting on all of the joys and sorrows of the past year. All of the ways I hit the bull’s-eye and missed the mark. I am humbly grateful to announce that I hit the bull’s-eye much more often than I missed the mark, and I am humbly saddened for the times when I missed the mark. This is the Both/And of my life and everyone’s life, I believe.
I am addicted to Redemption because it is what I was taught. The Gates of T’Shuvah are always open, God receives us back with Love and understanding. I have to have my gates of return always open and receive people with love and understanding because I am God’s representative. I am asking you to be Addicted to Redemption because you, also, are God’s Representative! We need you to return and forgive.
I ask you to forgive me for “missing the marks” and know that I am sincere about connecting and reconnecting. I promise you my best in the moment and promise that I will hit the bull’s-eye and miss the mark. I also am committing to you to argue and wrestle, defend and acquiesce, laugh and cry in my perfectly imperfect way. I commit to transparency and growth and, most of all, to always being me and not hiding. I am asking you to sign on to this same pledge with me, with friends, with family, with co-workers, with strangers and with God. May it be a sweet year for everyone filled with TShuvah, Tzedakah and T’Filah.
