Earth Etude for Elul 12

Learn to Acknowledge Defeat

by Rabbi Paul Plotkin

~I have been a vegetable and herb gardener for the last 30 years. That means that I have had the pleasure of tasting wonderful tomatoes and carrots, snow peas, peppers and eggplants that had real flavor and something mysterious called freshness. It also means that I have experienced disappointment, failure, heartache and loss at a frequency much greater than success. At times after waiting months for a veggie to mature and reach maximal ripeness, something happens. An animal decides it was invited to the harvest. A pest attacks the plant and stunts its growth. A violent storm arrives and washes out the garden.

How does one psychologically handle so much disappointment?

It is really a simple calculation. Nothing in life is guaranteed, but it is absolutely true that 100% of all crops not planted will never be harvested.

An important tool in managing life is to acknowledge defeat and move on to try again. Every gardener looks at a crop failure and responds, “next year will be better.” So too we come to shul on Rosh Hashana and quietly affirm, “this year will be better.”

Leshana Tova

Rabbi Paul Plotkin was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1976 and served in pulpits for 40 years. He is the author of “Wisdom Grows in My Garden” 25 life lessons he learned from his garden. He also served for 20 years on the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly and was the founding chairman of the Kashrut Sub-Committee.

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