When the Excuses Run Out - Ha’azinu, Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya, and the Courage of Teshuvah

 When the Excuses Run Out  We all have explanations for why we are the way we are. It was our parents. It wasthe home we grew up in. It was our environment, our circumstances, our personality, perhaps even our DNA. And sometimes those explanations areabsolutely true. But somewhere between understanding where we came from anddeciding where we are going, explanation can quietly become excuse. In thismorning’s Breakfast and a Class, as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah through theopening words of Ha’azinu, we meet one of the most unlikely heroes of teshuvahin the entire Talmud: Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya.  He first turns to the mountains, then Heaven and Earth, then the sun and moon, andfinally the stars, begging each of them to help him. Until suddenly there isnowhere else to turn and no one else to blame. And then he speaks five wordsthat change his eternity: אֵין הַדָּבָר תָּלוּי אֶלָּא בִּי — “The matter depends onno one other than me.” Perhaps that is where teshuvah really begins—not when we deny our past, our wounds, or the forces that shaped us, but when we realize that none of them gets to write our future. Join us for “When the Excuses Run Out.”