You go through life, with it’s ups and downs, and if you’re fortunate, by the time you’re an adult you’ve had time to deal with the childhood wounds and trauma you experienced growing up. None of us are immune to pain and disfunction.

But no matter how much effort we expend to heal from the wounds, some of them are still there, silently lurking in the shadows of our psyche—waiting for the right moment to raise their ugly head and strike in moments that trigger us.

Every year in the fall, Jewish people are preparing to celebrate the fall feasts written about in the Bible. From the blowing of the shofar on Yom Teruah (also known as Rosh Hashanah), to the day of fasting on Yom Kippur, to the culmination of these feasts in the seven day celebration known as Sukkot. In fact, Sukkot is so momentous, that there’s an eighth day added on to the end to celebrate how God gave the Torah to the ancient Israelite people.

We want so desperately to turn the life of the spirit into a methodology that can be prescribed and followed, negating our need to commit our lives to hearing his voice and following wherever that may lead.