What letter are you?

A sefer (SAY-fare) Torah is a copy of the formal Hebrew text of the Torah, hand-written on special kosher parchment using a hand-carved kosher quill and kosher ink. It is written entirely in Hebrew, all 304,805 letters, all of which must be duplicated precisely by a highly-trained scribe, called a sofer (SO-fare). Scribing an entire Torah scroll can take as long as one and a half years. If one single letter is missing or written erroneously or smudged, the entire scroll is considered considered trief (trayf), or un-kosher, and therefore is considered unreadable.

The Torah tells us that each one of us is to write a Torah, that each one of us is a Torah. In other words, each of us has one letter, one word, one phrase, one verse of Torah to bring to the world, and if we don't, the entire Torah of Life is unreadable.

As we move towards our New Year, it is important to stop and make an assessment, to ask ourselves questions, such as I have been sharing the past few days.

Today, we ask just a few more:

What is my one truth, one word, one letter that I am meant to bring to the world?

Do I have poetry in my soul? Philosophy? Art? Charities that I support? Causes that matter to me? Do I have a sense of mission or purpose?

In other words, what are my values? What motivates me? What is important in my life?

This last line of questions shouldn't take long to answer, because those things which are most important to us are those on which we spend the most time, attention, energy, and money. If those things and activities on which you spend the most time, attention, energy, and money is out of alignment for what you want them to be, this is the time to take stock.

Today, take a moment to write down the wisdom that you've wrestled out of life thus far. It's important.

These questions are what makes a holy book, a Torah, that truth at the core of our lives.