As we approach
Rosh Hashanah, we naturally begin thinking about what needs fixing. The
mistakes we need to correct. The habits we need to break. The parts of
ourselves that still need work. But what if that is only half the story? What
if Torah was not given merely to make us less bad, but to help us
discover how much greater we are capable of becoming? 

In
this morning’s Breakfast & Class,
we explore a remarkable teaching of Rabbi Frand built around the words לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא — “It is not in
Heaven.” Why did HaShem
create us unfinished? Why does the Torah hide an allusion to milah
inside the words “Who will ascend for us to Heaven?” And if the angels have no
yetzer hara, why did they
want the Torah? The answers lead to a beautiful message for these final days of
Elul: HaShem
gave us wheat and asks us to make bread. He did not create us finished—He
created us with the extraordinary ability to become.