When I was beginning my first pulpit in Northern Virginia, I made the mistake of asking one of my congregants if I would see them at the next service (I should have been satisfied seeing them once that week!). It was a Sabbath morning and that evening was the Selichot service, various prayers chanted by Jews in the month before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. She said that she never attended Selichot services because the prayers made her feel lowly and like an unworthy human being.

This short interchange comes to mind as I think about the upcoming High Holydays season and the 10 days of repentance. By doing a cheshbon hanefesh, an accounting of the soul, we are supposed to review our lives, look at our behavior, and hopefully improve it in the coming year. The purpose of the penitential season and the process of repentance is not to humiliate and denigrate ourselves, but to take an honest look at who we are, and begin to figure out ways of fixing ourselves.

Some misinterpret this process of repentance and believe that by recounting our faults we hurt ourselves. I disagree and I'll explain with the following story. A great rabbi was once approached by his students with a seemingly mundane question. "Rebbe", they asked with great trepidation. "Why is it that men wear pants with two pockets when one would suffice?" The rabbi paced, stroked his beard and reached into one pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. "In one pocket," he said, "you should carry a piece of paper that quotes the biblical phrase, "but I am nothing but dust and ashes." Then he reached into another pocket and took out another slip of paper; "For my sake...(it teaches us in the Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5,) the world was created."

We are human beings and when compared with the Almighty, we seem like dust and ashes. We need to remember that, especially when we exercise authority and control. We must remind ourselves that arrogance is a sin that helps us to forget our place in the universe and the transcendence of God. That is the purpose of one pocket.

The other pocket contains a piece of a paper that quotes a sublime phrase from a 3^rd century document, the Mishna that is the second most important book on the Jewish bookshelf (after the Hebrew Bible). No, the world wasn't created for our sake, like it was for the first person, Adam, but if we don't appreciate that we are the creatures of God, then we'll never believe that we are capable of fixing the world.

One message without the other creates arrogant and haughty human beings. The other creates passive, weak human beings who allow life to trample their human dignity. Life must be lived between both of these poles, and the art of finding that balance, is what we should strive to achieve. This is the holy and difficult task facing Jews as they begin this High Holyday season.

Rabbi David Ebstein lives in Jerusalem and writes for Travelujah. He is an ordained Conservative Rabbi as well as a licensed tour guide.