This Shabat we will read two short parashot that deal with the mutual commitment between the people of Israel and God. One especially powerful verse describes a new method of circumcision.

“And the Lord, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, [so that you may] love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life”.

The metaphor of “circumcision” in this context is interesting.

The “regular” circumcision we perform, known as “Brit Mila” we remove a part of the foreskin and reveal the flesh underneath.  The “circumcision of the heart” expresses the belief that spiritual progress does not require a total change in human nature but requires the discovery of the inner goodness hidden in each and every one of us.  Purity exists in every person, and what is required is nothing but the removal of the shell that covers it.

We express this idea every morning in the dawn blessings, when we say: “O Lord, the soul you gave me – it is pure.”  Anyone can say these words, and it doesn’t matter what they did last night or last week.  Our actions can tarnish the shell that covers the soul, but the purity of the soul is preserved.  The soul always remains pure, and we are called to remove the covering and reveal it.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslev (18th century, Ukraine), claimed that the path to achieving spiritual excellence does not involve self-criticism and a search for shortcomings, but the opposite: a search for the good.  According to him, even complete evil can make an effort and find in himself some “good point” from which he can return and start a process of growth and repair.

The search for the good point in a person is not just a technique of positive psychology, which seeks to cultivate the good by highlighting the existing good.  This is a deep belief in a person, in every person and in every situation, which claims that there is no person who is entirely negative, there is no person who is unable to say every morning “The soul you gave me is pure.”  It is the nature of man that when he shines a flashlight on that good and pure point, it arises by itself and affects all areas of his life.

We are standing a week before Rosh Hashana, when G-d judges all of humanity ahead of the new year that begins according to the Hebrew calendar.  These days are days of self-reflection and awakening for personal and public improvement.

But it does not mean that a person should beat himself up for the wrong actions he has done.  Most of the time, this approach does not promote the person, but on the contrary, depresses and discourages.  We are called to make for ourselves a “Heart Circumcision” removing the “spiritual foreskin” and discover the good deeds we have done, to recognize that beneath the shell lies a pure soul.  In this way we will prepare ourselves to stand before G-d and win, with G-d’s help, a good and sweet year.

SHANA TOVA UMETUKA!
Rabbi Refael Cohen