Rabbi Geller Nipping at the very heels of summer's fun and relaxation, the immediate dawn of autumn's new Jewish year, 5769, focuses the spiritual attention of our congregational family. We now enter the worldwide Jewish time of introspection, self-evaluation and self-examination.

A contemporary sage reminded me that our practical, old Philly friend, Ben Franklin, gave us one of the most useful clues on how to authentically approach this period of "Yamim Noraim" - awe-filled days.'

On his desk, Ben kept two boxes. One box was marked: "problems that will take time to solve." The other noted "problems time has already solved." In other words, as we confront these High Holy days, they are really neither ally nor enemy. Rather, it is what you and I do with this sacred period of time that makes all the difference.

Isn't this the same dynamic of selfevaluation and "be-all-you-can-be" strikingly evident at the Olympic contests that engross the attention of hundreds of millions of TV spectators? These remarkable athletes have spent a lifetime of grueling discipline skillfully testing the endurance and outer limits of the human body. And it all depends on what they do during a precious few minutes - sometimes split seconds - of intensive performance.

But these games are not only inseparable from the personal perspective of our everyday lives; they are likewise permeated by communal, national and global issues. (This is why China - with its justifiably besmirched reputation regarding heavyhanded human rights violations - has spent billions of dollars and man-hours for the prestigious privilege of being the host nation.)

In modern times, perhaps this lack of separation between real life and the Olympics was most positively - and visibly - illustrated 40 years ago in Mexico City. Two black American sprinters, Smith and Carlos, while receiving their gold and bronze medals, raise their blacked-gloved fists to protest racism in then apartheid South Africa. They were also demonstrating against America's shameful discrimination toward African-Americans in the critical socio-economic areas of education, housing and employment.

Likewise because it has always been the youth who idealistically see visions of a more perfect future, so our local Jewish Federation has announced its next Community Young Leadership Development program (CLEP) for the new Jewish year. Beginning in October through May '09, every six weeks will feature another leadership seminar taught by the most outstanding national Jewish motivational trainers.

Using the language of these special days for our Jewish People, these young, potentially Olympian mitzvah-makers will be asked, during this coming year, to fill the reams of blank pages in their own personal Divine Book-Of-Life. Those collective acts of compassionate tzdekah are meant to create a better, more caring community for all our American neighbors, By so doing, they will help to fulfill the Yom Tov charge of that Jewish poet who wrote:
No one else can speak the words
on our lips.
Drench yourself in words unspoken.
Live your life with arms wide open.
Today is where your book begins.
The rest is still unwritten.