Parsha Thought: Let Go (Shoftim)

Rabbi Silber's Parsha Thought on Shoftim looks at the soldier exempted from battle because he is "afraid," and follows the Bas Ayin's reading that his real fear is holding on to sins he cannot let go of. Rabbi Silber teaches that a person can achieve teshuva through a single shift in mindset, but only if he is willing to release the friends, habits, grudges, and character traits that keep him tethered to his old self. Arriving as this teaching does on the first day of Elul, he frames the next forty days as the window to open our hands and let go of whatever is holding us back from real change.

• A single change in mindset can begin the process of teshuva, even before any behavior has changed.
• Sin itself doesn't have to hold a person back - refusing to let go of it does.
• Growth is often blocked not by what happened to us but by what we insist on continuing to hold onto.
• Grudges, anger, and the desire for revenge, however justified, can stunt our ability to move forward.
• Elul's forty days are a window to identify what we're still gripping and finally release it.