The Emendation of a Parting Gift
When I moved from Baltimore to New York three years ago, a friend of mine gave me a gift of a plaque that said, “Life is not about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself.”
This quote was originally coined by George Bernard Shaw and most likely connected to the theme of his play, Pygmalion.
In spending time reflecting on the themes of the chagim this year, and especially on those of Shabbat Shuva, for some reason, this quote kept playing in my mind and I have come to look at it with different lenses.
The Haftarah for Shabbat Shuva comes from the 8th Century prophet, Hosea.  He begins by saying, (14:2)
(ב) שׁ֚וּבָה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל עַ֖ד ה אֱלֹ-הֶ֑יךָ כִּ֥י כָשַׁ֖לְתָּ בַּעֲוֺנֶֽךָ
Return, O Israel, toward the LORD your God, For you have fallen because of your sin.
We are to return towards the Lord and this return, according to Rabbi Yehuda Kil is a return to our origins--a going back to the roots of our relationship with God.  He says that the message here is to return to  ברית האהבה הראשונה שביניהם-a return to the original love that was between the people and God  - at Mt. Sinai, in the desert and beyond.  The shuva is about shedding the new identity and returning to our true selves as people and as a nation. It is about discovering ourselves.

Rabbi  R Shlomo Yosef Zevin- (20th C Israel) says that on Shabbat Shuva and actually built within every Shabbat is a similar message--one of  returning to our original selves.  He cites the similarities of the word teshuva and shabbat and writes,

Here is the Teshuva of Shabbat - on the other six days, we are all over the place in our minds. Shabbat returns us to the source.

  זוהי תשובה של שבת--בששת ימי החול האדם הוא מפוזר ומפורד ממחשבתו...ושבת מחזיר את כל מחשבתו לשרשם.

The six days of the week distract us from our true original connection to God and also to our true selves.  Shabbat, and especially Shabbat Shuva, is about reconnecting to God and also rediscovering our mission, our roots and our best and truest selves. So, life is about finding ourselves.

But while the first part of Shaw’s quote goes against the themes of the High Holidays, the second half of his statement ring are so in sync with the rhythm of the season.

After the Shofar is blown on Yom Kippur night, while most run home to eat, many have the tradition to begin to build and create immediately, by grabbing the hammer and building the Sukkah that night.
And the theme of creation rings loud as the entire holiday cycle concludes on Simchat Torah by reading about God as the ultimate creator of the world.  In the spirit of imitating God, we learn at the conclusion of the chagim that we must use the gifts of time and talent to create -- to create goodness, positivity, generosity and yes, to create ourselves.

So, I would say that Shaw’s quote rings true as a great ode to the chagim, with one change: Life is about finding yourself.  And life is also about creating yourself. It’s about both.

May it be a year of both finding, creating, recreating and rediscovering and keeping the blessed cycle going.