Cantor Confidential

It's beshert that today's Elul prompt is "prepare" because my intention today was to prepare the service outlines for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  I'm big into preparation, sort of.  I start planning for events - divrei Torah, essays for local newspapers, parties, services, lesson plans, concerts - weeks and months in advance. I brainstorm and research, come up with lots of ideas, and make long notes and lists.  Then I  promptly stop as soon as something more interesting or immediate comes my way. I figure that I have "plenty of time" before said event, so I can get back to finalizing my prepping soon enough.  The reality, though, is that because I am very expert at last-minute pulling together, all those deeply researched lists fall apart, and I usually do wind up doing that last-minute thing.  And that's a problem. Financially, I wind up spending more money than I should have needed to ordering things with overnight delivery. I spend ho

https://pixabay.com/photos/output-input-light-beam-sunlight-419280/ ...בְּצֵאת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִמִּרַָים , בֵּית יַעֲקֹב מֵעַם לֹעֵז   As Israel was leaving Egypt (also: a place of narrowness and despair), the house of Jacob from a people with a strange language ... (Psalm 114) A year ago I started to leave my own place of narrowness and despair, leaving behind a language that had become not only strange but physically and spiritual damaging. A series of coincidences suggested that there might be a door for me to walk through. Would I be able to open it all the way so I could actually get out? Would the door slam and hit me in the face? Would I have the courage to learn a new language?  Time will tell.