What will you do better this year? This question came across my e-mail earlier this week and it has stuck in the forefront of my mind ever since. It is a simple question that calls for personal introspection. At first thought, I had many responses:

I will be a more patient mother.

I will be more patient with my mother.

I will work more efficiently.

I will eat less ice cream.

Or, maybe I will take my kids out for more ice cream.

I will give more tzedakah.

I will try to sleep in on Sundays.

I will listen.

I will study more Torah.

I will protect my heart .

I will open my heart.

I will visit my brother.

What will you do better this year? It is not such a simple question because the answers beg of us to change and turn our patterns in ways that are not always comfortable and often contradict ourselves. This question reminds me of a saying attributed to Nachman of Bratzlav that reads, “If we are not better tomorrow than we are today, why have tomorrow?” Nachman is asking an even larger question. It is not simply a question of what will you do better, but what will we do better. That is the second question I want each of us to contemplate going into this new year 5772. With that in mind, my first responses to the question are fairly selfish. Yes, I need to think about what I can do better for myself, but I also want to challenge myself to think about what I can do better for my community and the larger world. I want to do better by taking responsibility for the collective world, not just my world.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If only for myself, who am I? And if not now, when?” These infamous words of Rabbi Hillel are constantly challenging us and illuminating the struggle we all face: our responsibility to ourselves and our responsibility to our world. How do we balance meeting our own personal needs and also being an active steward of our larger community and world?

What will you do better? The question still remains in my mind and I want to get it uncomfortably into your minds as well.

I want to conclude with the words of Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, a neurologist and a psychiatrist. He wrote a book called Man’s Search for Meaning, in which he states,

“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” Frankl speaks to the answer of the question, and that is action. What actions will you take to do better and to make a difference in the world. The problems of the world will always exist. And each and every one of us must take action in our own unique way.

Shana tova!