Aish

Success can be the best excuse to stop growing. Here’s why Rosh Hashanah demands you keep going anyway. As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, we face one of the central conflicts of human life: should we keep striving to grow, or have we earned the right to relax and stay where we are? Growth demands effort. It means examining ourselves honestly, recognizing what's still lacking, and taking responsibility for becoming more than we are today. Rest, by contrast, is comfortable.

Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen busts five myths about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Your browser does not support the video tag. Watch the full video below. Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen has an unusual resume: six years studying meditation and martial arts in Asia, a stint as a monk, and now the host of "Rabbi in the Hot Seat." He joined Jamie Geller to dismantle five of the biggest misconceptions people carry about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur -- and to make the case that the High Holidays aren't heavy at all.

In this special unplugged episode of Rabbi in the Hot Seat, Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen sits down with his friend, musician Akiva Chai, for an evening of stories, niggunim, and real talk about what Rosh Hashana is actually about. Your browser does not support the video tag. Click here to comment on this article Like What You Read? Give Jews around the world the chance to experience engaging Jewish wisdom with more articles and videos on Aish.

Rosh Hashanah is often called the Day of Judgment, the day we stand before God and ask for another year of life. It's also the day we show up with big plans for who we want to become. Ten days later, on Yom Kippur, we commit to real change. And then, almost every time, it falls apart. This isn't a uniquely Jewish problem. It's a human one. We come up with a sincere, inspired vision for who we're going to be, and the moment the inspiration fades, so does the resolution.

There are moments when we suddenly become aware of our breathing. A frightening diagnosis, a phone call in the middle of the night, waiting for news about someone we love, an antisemitic incident that once seemed unimaginable – our chest tightens, our heart races, our breathing turns shallow. In those moments, we instinctively take a deep breath. As we enter Rosh Hashanah, many of us could use a deep breath.

Your browser does not support the video tag. Click here if you are unable to view this video. Click here to comment on this article Like What You Read? Give Jews around the world the chance to experience engaging Jewish wisdom with more articles and videos on Aish. As a nonprofit organization it's your support that keeps us going. Thanks so much!

At age 31, Daniel Lewin had served in an elite IDF unit, married and had two children, studied at Technion and MIT, co-founded Akamai Technologies, and became a millionaire. His life was tragically cut short when he fought hijackers on the flight that hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Known to his friends and family as Danny, Daniel Lewin was born in 1970 in Denver, Colorado, the oldest of three children. His parents, Charles and Peggy Lewin, were physicians.

Two Talmudic study partners used to fight over every point for hours. Turns out that's exactly how to get AI to actually teach you something. We are living in a generation where answers to almost any question are available instantly. When assigned tasks at school or work, we just type in a short prompt to AI and the rest is taken care of. When you don’t understand the homework, take a photo of it and BOOM, you have the answer with full working in one second.

Confronting death encourages you to live life more fully. Western culture works overtime to make us forget that we are all going to die. No matter how many green juices you drink or how little gluten or carbs you eat, death is the only thing in life that's certain. Death is seen as a distant reality, something we don’t need to think about. That is, until we have no choice. Yom Kippur forces us to confront our mortality head-on, and in doing so, it gives us the opportunity to live more meaningfully.

Feeling overwhelmed by everything you'd like to change? Here's a simple 5-step plan to find the real problem and finally fix it. Every Yom Kippur, I run into the same problem. I’d like to sit down, take an honest look at myself and figure out where I’m falling short. But where do I start? There are a lot of things I could be doing better. I could probably fill several pages.