Last year I read Malcom Gladwell's book Outliers. It's an easy and quick read about successful people and the conditions and circumstances that made them successful. One of the things he documents is that people like Bill Gates, Yitchak Pearlman or even the Beatles, each have put in a certain number of hours before becoming a notable talent, or an expert. What's the magic number? 10,000 hours.

Most of us can only document 10,000 hours of sleeping, eating or maybe doing laundry. But to put in 10,000 hours of practicing something in order to become great at it, is a true commitment. Some would say it is a lifetime-commitment.

I bring this up because we no doubt live in a society where we want things to happen fast. We want them yesterday. We stand in front of the microwave and wonder, "When is this going to be done already?"

The real question is: What are we willing to put in 10,000 for? What do I want to be an expert at?

I want to be healthy. I better start putting in 10,000 hours of eating right, excercising and not overindulging in things that would keep me from being fit.

I want to be happy. I better find ways to log 10,000 doing things that not only make me happy, but contribute to the happiness of the world. If can create a happy world, there's a good chance I will get caught up in the happiness I create.

I want peace. I better start not only sincerely praying for peace, but I need to participate in 10,000 hours of peace-making activities starting in my home, my workplace, my place of worship.

I want to end hunger, I want prosperity, I want fulfillment, I want, I want I want I want......

To become an expert, to make it happen, I have to put in the time. There is no magic formula, just a magic number. Thanks for pointing that out, Malcom. I'm on it.

Last week I attended a terrific conference put on by emPower Music and Arts. The mission of this organization is to promote positive music. (They even award annual Posi Awards in categories like, best healing song, best personal transformation song, best social action song). It is a great group of people, an impressive array of talent and I believe, a very important cause.

As many of you know, I have been pushing my music toward positive thinking for a few years now. I try not to write songs that complain or sound desperate; and, at the same time, try not to sound fluffy and shallow (although I have suffered some of those accusations in various reviews). Anyway, as I listened to the music being performed at the PosiAwards, I was struck by a certain discomfort that I felt and didn't know how to deal with.

No matter how my music comes across, especially if it sounds secular, I write it through the spiritual lens of my Judaism. It is my only point of reference. What I didn't expect to feel was such a strong sense of purpose driven specifically from my Jewish beliefs. For example, when I listened to someone else sing a song about love (spiritual, not romantic) when they professed to have no religious beliefs, it made me feel awkward. How did they arrive at such a strong conviction? Why did I need them to have faith in order to hear their message? I have been a part of many interfaith events with not an inkling of discomfort; why then, when faith was taken out of the equation, did I feel so unsure about it all?

I realized that as much as I like to say I am against the dogma of religion, I, myself, have not been able to escape it. In fact, not only have I not escaped it, I subscribe to it!!! It was hard for me to take God out of the equation and talk about the universe as if God is only energy, or a force. I believe in a God who obligates me to conduct myself in a certain way, who expects humankind to abide by laws of right and wrong, who loves through teaching, who is the Source of Good in the world.

What I need to work on is grasping that there are many roads to the same destination; that as much as I love to study Torah, words are ultimately an invention. A human-made invention. No word can adequately describe the essence of God. Words can imply, and words can organize our understanding, but they cannot BE God. Organized religion, with all of its constraints, dogma and dysfunction has served me and millions of others well in that it has led us to love, peace, grace and humility. But peace and love can be arrived at through new thought as well as old religion. Wow, I have just stepped clearly out of my comfort zone.

I believe in God, and the only way I know how to live out those beliefs is through Judaism. However, now more than ever, I am firmly convinced that Judaism is one of many paths to wholeness. The lesson I learned from emPower is that all religion is dogmatic and the dogma is OK if it leads to wholeness and good. If the dogma causes us to be divisive, pitting one against the other, we have clearly mis-interpretted its (and our) purpose. Of all the things God created, I do not believe God created enemies. We have to take responsibility for that one. The failures of religion are not due to God's intentions, but to our lack of understanding.

Each human must find a path to peace and wholeness. As much as it makes me uncomfortable to say it, religion is invented, not created. Judaism is what I know best and how I have chosen to live--it's right for me. We must use the teachings of our religions or "new thought" to spiral upward and be aware that there are many paths to holiness, we need but walk one.

This week I read two interesting posts from bloggers that I admire in the Jewish cyberworld. My favorite yenta, YoYenta, wrote the following (secular) New Year's resolution: "I will no longer participate in Judaism out of obligation....It’s not so much that I want to stop being Jewish (as if that were possible), I just want to stop pretending that the external rules and obligations are nourishing me when they’re not."

And a great, learned friend and prolific muser, Adrian Durlester, sadly wrote the following on his blog: "My passion is waning. I seek solace in the words of Torah and prophets to little avail. It is a crisis as much of lack of passion as it is a crisis of faith. Oh, that inner spark still burns – it is there, I can feel it. Yet the pilot light seems unable to light the big burner."

What would prompt two active and inspired Jewish minds to write such such desparate posts? This is something I have been grappling with for a few years and it sparked a writing project that I have been working on for over two years, not a piece of music, but some serious writing.

For generations we have educated our children in the rituals of being Jewish and walked them year-in and year-out through our calendar of major and minor holidays; all with symbolic rituals and observances that we hope to relate to our living scattered throughout the diaspora in a modern world. If we were lucky, we had someone inspire us to study Torah and other rich Jewish texts from Prophets or Mishnah. Over the last decade or so, even the Zohar (Jewish Mysticism) has come into the mainstream--mostly because of pop culture icons like Madonna, and internet-saavy gurus like Rabbi Michael Berg.

But for most, there has been a major disconnect between what we learned as kids, (and some as adults) and how we really apply our knowledge in day-to-day living. And that, my friends, is the key. When our Judaism becomes something auxilliary to our lives, it seems like an obligation (as in our Yenta's case). And when whole communities see their Judaism as separate from their day-to-day lives, we leave our leaders and scholars feeling desperate and uninspired (Adrian).

Something has to change. A bridge needs to be built. We need to provide our kids and our adults with a Jewish toolbox for living life. Judaism has nuggets of wisdom that can be applied daily. To that end, I began at the most basic (not easy, but basic) starting points of Jewish life to begin my writing. I began to reinterpret the 10 commandments in a collection of essays I call, "Positive Jewish Living, New Enlightenment from the 10 Commandments"

Do you know that when I googled those three words together (Positive Jewish Living) I got basically no substantive hits? The only website I got was something called "Your Jewish Fairy Godmother, " which was no more than an advice column by someone Jewish, no actual Jewish content there. How is it that a religion so old, with so many universal teachings is not associated with the words "Positive" and "Living" all at once?

Here in America where most Jews are not Hebrew-literate,we are detached from our sacred texts. Volumes of commentary elude us, even the most observant every-week Shabbat temple-goers, long for fulfillment during those days in-between our days of rest. Where is that being provided? What are the resources for the every-man who just wants some spiritual nourishment to fuel his every-day?

Please, if you have something you're reading, doing, listening to, post it here so I/we can be enlightened and uplifted. In the meanwhile, I am going to work on my Positive Jewish Living stuff to present to you to try and keep your fire stoked.

Hang in there, don't give up! I'm with you.
Beth

This Biennial was special to me for many reasons. First and foremost, it marked the 10th year since my national debut in Jewish music (the 1999 URJ Biennial held in Orlando, FL). I also got to play opening night with my dear friend, Julie Silver, and my beloved bandmates who traveled a long day to do our show that night.

Since 2001, I have worked the Biennials as a guitarist in the house band playing for Shabbat services and songsessions. It gives me a unique insight into how a massive endeavor like this comes together. I appreciate the tons of work and thought that go into each decision; all made by a very talented group of clergy and other professionals who all have very strong convictions and directives. Although I do not necessarily agree with all of the musical decisions that were made for this conference, I can appreciate the process that they went through to arrive at the decisions they did.

In 1999, Rabbi Eric Yoffie spoke very strongly about how worship needed to be musically engaging and not a spectator sport. The conventions since then have definitely put that sentiment at the forefront and the services have reflected that very strongly. I am not sure that that was the case in all services for this convention--feedback from "participants" lead me to believe that some of them felt left out of the worship experience.

We cannot, under any circumstance, ever move backward on this point. Our congregants need to feel engaged and vital to the experience of communal prayer. There also have to be cantorial moments when the worshipper can retreat and listen and have the service wash over them, but those moments cannot dominate the service. Our culture has become too fast-paced and impatient to keep worshippers out of the loop for too long. For better or for worse, that's where we are and we have to adapt or risk losing them.

On a completely different note, I had some wonderful conversations with friends I really needed to catch up with and am grateful for rekindled relationships that only a Biennial could have fostered. The reconnections have filled me up with good vibes and hope and have inspired me to forge ahead with all of my endeavors and dreams.

If you have never experienced a Jewish convention of this magnitude, you must, at least once. It is very powerful and unlike anything else. I hope to see you at the next one--Washington DC, I believe--2011.

The best being about being in the middle of your career is that a lot of the frantic networking you do at the beginning of your career is done. Certainly I am still meeting new people all the time, but at this point, I've established my circles of friends. We call on each other as friends and professionals, and it just feels good to know that people really know you and you really know them.

I got called on to play on Julie Silver's new CD, Reunion. I played a bunch of nylon tracks and a couple of acoustic tracks. The music was uplifting, touching and pure, well, Julie. I love her voice and her stories and it was such a pleasure to play on her stuff. I totally recommend you picking up the CD, which you can do through www.soundswrite.com.

One of my favorite things is when different circles of friends collide, and people I love from different areas of my life finally meet. People who were once only my stories of them are finally face to face with others I have spoken to and about. I get such a high from that. It is at those times that I realize how terrific it is to celebrate my relationships and connect people to one another both socially and through music. It makes the world smaller, and it makes my circles both broader and tighter. :)

Last night I had a great flying dream. I went really high--it was at night and I could see a whole city lit up beneath me. (It definitely was not Orlando--it actually seemed European, but I'm not sure that the location is important). It was exhiliarating going up and coming down. I am not a person who likes roller coasters-I cringe at the thought of leaving my weak stomach at the top of a hill as I race down the track, but in this dream I loved the thrill. I wasn't afraid. I woke up excited and refreshed with a sense of "yes!"

High Holy Days must be over. They must've done their job. Flying dreams usually signify freedom from something. I don't think I feel free from the holidays, as I loved every minute of preparing and leading. But I do feel free from a year that wasn't so terrific. I am ready to begin again and am so grateful for the opportunity.

On a completely different note, I am truly touched by John, Johnny and Eric-my core musicians for services. They are by no means hired hands. Hired hands don't read along with the service, don't get choked up at emotional points, don't sing along when they are not even sure of the words. These guys are spiritually connected and I am sure that this is why our services sounded so spectacular. They played with their hands, their heads and their hearts. What a blessing. The congregation is in love with them and vice versa. I don't think I could ask for any more than that. The energy from the bima was palpable and was mirrored with an even greater energy from the congregation. At points I was lost in the beauty of it all and crave to experience it again. Flying high, I guess is a good description of how I feel.

It is the morning of Kol Nidrei night. This day I spend quietly. Lots of deep, intentional breathing, lots of thinking of this day in years past. What a journey this has been. I recently went through my little box of things from my father. I looked at the note I wrote him when I was eight years old and his father died. It was clipped to my grandfather's obituary and stayed in my father's wallet for 10 years until he was found in his office disoriented and semi-conscious, the beginning of his slow demise.

"Tonight I stand and sing the words. I reach down deep inside me to find the passion and the strength to make my offering. My dad's been gone for many years, but now he stands beside me. Connecting me to Adonai and those for whom I sing."

I wrote those words about Kol Nidrei over 10 years ago in a song called All These Vows. These holidays seem to be the connective tissue of of my life. More than any other yearly milestone, I can clearly trace my emotions and growth through our Days of Awe. My feelings this year are of deep gratitude and humility.

But another feeling has consumed me this year, and that is regarding the power of prayer. I firmly believe that one of the primary purposes of our congregations are to harness the power of collective prayer. If we could focus our prayers like a laser with no regard to time or outside thought, I believe more and more that we can affect change.

Over the next day I will try and shepherd this energy toward a new year of peace and contentment. God-willing, this is the beginning of a new awareness for me and those for whom I sing.

Last night on the way home from Temple, my 8-year-old daughter and I were talking about books we were reading. She made an amazing comment when she remarked, "It's sad when a good book ends, because you want it to keep on going." I agreed and was happy that she loved reading so much. But then she explained to me that when she really knows and feels connected to the characters, she just writes new endings for her favorite books and plays out their lives in her head.

I thought that was really sweet, but then on further reflection realized that this is the theme of Rosh Hashanah. Hopefully we know ourselves very well and on Rosh Hashanah we get to rewrite our stories. We can't revise our history, but we can decide how we want our story to continue. We are asked to return to God and to our best selves, and by this we create a new starting point from which we step into the New Year.

Maybe I should have had my daughter write my sermons...

The day or two before the High Holy Days, I tend to get very quiet. Not just because I might be sick of the sound of my own voice (practicing, talking on the phone), and not just to preserve my voice for the days ahead. My sense of awe seems to begin now. I become intensely reflective, hopeful, mournful and focused, and there just are no words. There are no words to speak, none to sing, only stillness. More than any other time, I open myself up to the infinite possibility of the coming year. I allow myself to be completely vulnerable with hopes that God's goodness will fill me up and work through me in the days ahead. I crave the silence and look forward to it each year.

I have some favorite pieces of music that fill the quiet when I am ready for some listening. Scriabin Piano Concerto, Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra top the list, but I am also looking forward to receiving Bruce Hornsby's new CD, Levitate, today for some musical and sonic yumminess.

Looking forward to a beautiful new year.

As the holidays approach, I am always confounded by the habits of many of my Jewish brothers and sisters. First, I wonder what it is like being a twice-a-year Jew...the Jew who comes to temple on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and never sets foot in a service the rest of the year. Or the one who does not even belong to a temple and scrambles to find a place to be on the holidays but has no connection to the community among which they sit. Without passing judgment, I am saddened by the fact that these people haven't found anything worth connecting to the rest of the year. Their Judaism eludes them. They are connected by a thin strand of tradition held over from a long-gone family or even worse, a sense of guilt.

But then I also think of the institutions where hypocrisy and cynicism are the loudest messages during this holy season. The politics of ticket distribution, honors, seating and even parking set up a hierarchy that is almost caste-like in its divisiveness. Maybe we are the creators of the twice-a-year Jew. Maybe we have diminished the holiness of these Holy Days through an over-emphasis on process over product; turning off those on the fence instead of turning them on and drawing them in.

I pray that these holidays, especially because of the nature of this year that has been so challenging in so many ways, brings out the compassion and outreach that are the best our congregations have to offer and that our doors are always open to those who seek to renew their spiritual life. May those who come in for their twice yearly visit, be drawn in to stay, to pray, to study, and connect to a community that so desperately needs their presence and their voice.

Great rehearsal today with my High Holy Day ensemble. I am firmly convinced that our arrangement is a great way to get a big sound for the holidays. Eric plays piano, John on 2nd keyboard (splitting the keys for bass and pads/accordian, etc.) Johnny D on a small cocktail drum kit, me on guitar, Norma and Julie on cello and violin for Yom Kippur, and a 10-voice choir that sings in 3 parts. We get a HUGE sound. It has taken me 7 years to work out all my core arrangements and organize the services/books the way I want them. I try and add a new piece or 2 every year in addition to sermon anthems.

The musicians and I rehearsed 6 services worth of music in one 2.5 hour rehearsal and we are ready to go. Such a pleasure to play with such pros. I am now officially excited for Rosh Hashanah.