When the Excuses Run Out 

We all have explanations for why we are the way we are. It was our parents. It was
the home we grew up in. It was our environment, our circumstances, our personality, perhaps even our DNA. And sometimes those explanations are
absolutely true. But somewhere between understanding where we came from and
deciding where we are going, explanation can quietly become excuse. In this
morning’s Breakfast and a Class, as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah through the
opening words of Ha’azinu, we meet one of the most unlikely heroes of teshuvah
in the entire Talmud: Rabbi Elazar ben Dordaya. 

He first turns to the mountains, then Heaven and Earth, then the sun and moon, and
finally the stars, begging each of them to help him. Until suddenly there is
nowhere else to turn and no one else to blame. And then he speaks five words
that change his eternity: אֵין הַדָּבָר תָּלוּי אֶלָּא בִּי — “The matter depends on
no 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.”