“So I told God that I need a job, I need one right after the High Holidays, because I really can’t stay where I am much longer, and I need God to just send it to me. With all the High Holidays, I just don’t have the time to update my resume or even send it out. “
This was my mother last year a week before Rosh Hashanah. She was fed up of working in an organization that she felt was taking advantage of her.
There was a part of me that marveled at her faith, yet there was a deeper knowing that my mother would be able to manifest this incredible job without sending out a single resume.
True to her request a few days after Simchat Torah, the last of the High Holidays, she got a call from a young man, the son of a friend of my dad’s. He was looking for someone to work for him and was wondering if my mother was open to meeting him for an interview.
My mom doesn’t drive so this young man came to pick her up for the interview. My mom asked for a job, she asked for one right after the High Holidays, she explained that she didn’t have the time to search for one herself. She explained cleaning, cooking, and preparing for the holidays fatigued her. And here it was—exactly what she had asked for. She loves this new boss.
Whenever I think of this story, I am reminded of what the Rabbis call Holy Chutzpah. My mother has that in spades!
She asks for what she needs and trusts it to manifest. She never worries about how God will make it happen, just that S/He will.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Bardishev once stood up in front of the entire congregation and began to sing this song.
God, I want to make a trade with you,
A Trade I would like to make….
I will give you Chataim, Pshaim, Avonot (Sins, Iniquities, Crimes,)
And you will give me Slicha, Mechila Kaporah(Forgiveness, Amends, Atonement)
You think this will be an even trade.
No I tell you.
You will add Children, Sustenance and Life
If you will ask me what Children are, I will tell you.
Children are “Children and Grandchildren who are committed to a spiritual life”
If you will ask me what Sustenance is, I will tell you
Sustenance is “we will eat, and be full and we will thank you”
If you will ask me what Life is, I will tell you.
Life is “A life in which we can praise and bless you”
The last line of the song leads into the incredibly beautiful Yom Kippur Kaddish. Is a haunting and beautiful Yiddish song that touches me very deeply.
I find that even more poignant then the stunning tune is the Holy Chutzpah of Reb Levi Yitzchok.
Not only does he ask God for a trade.
Not only does he explain to the Divine that this trade is not an even trade, but he has the audacity to then outline exactly what it is that he wants…in specifics.
What are you craving?
What do you most long to reveal about yourself this coming year?
What is the hunger in your soul?
What would you dare to ask if you had the Holy Chutzpah of the Bardishever Rebbe (and my daring mother)?
I bless us all; as we enter this Yom Kippur, to not only ask for what we want—but to demand it, with specifics. Even if the requests sounds feels to large, and hopefully we will be blessed with a year in which all of our deepest yearnings are manifested.
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