Financial and personal repentance

As originally appeared in The Jerusalem Post on October 12, 2024.

“Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holy of holies of Jewish time. It is that rarest of phenomena, a Jewish festival without food. Instead, it is a day of fasting and prayer, introspection and self-judgment when, collectively and repeatedly, we confess our sins and pray to be written into God’s Book of Life” – Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Yom Kippur is here. After days of preparation focused on both seeking forgiveness and self-improvement, the holiest of all days is upon us. There is a rather obvious question, though, that must be asked. How is it that, each year, we keep coming back and asking forgiveness for the same sins over and over again? It’s as if we know that we aren’t really going to improve yet we go through the same process and are forgiven.

The end of the last Mishna in the tractate of Yoma quotes Rabbi Akiva, who said, “Fortunate are you, Israel; in front of whom do you get purified, and who purifies you? Your Father in heaven, as it is written, ‘and I will sprinkle pure water upon you and purify you’ and ‘God, the mikveh (ritual bath) of Israel’ – just as a mikveh purifies the impure, so too God purifies Israel.” (Mishna Yoma 8:9)

As I’ve previously written, I understand that the holy waters of a mikveh can purify those who fully immerse themselves, but can a few sprinkles of holy water truly have the same purifying power? Perhaps the sprinkling signifies a process. It takes a lot of small drops of water to create a whole pool. We aren’t expected to completely change our lifestyles overnight and become perfect people. It’s a long process—one small change and then another.

It’s the process of getting back on track, making a few small changes, and sticking to them that leads to our ‘purification’.

Maimonides asks “who is considered to have repented completely?” He answers in Hilchot Teshuva 2:1, “A person who confronts the same situation in which he sinned when he has the potential to commit [the sin again] and, nevertheless, abstains and does not commit it because of his Teshuva alone and not because of fear or a lack of strength.” To achieve that level can certainly take time.

Seek small wins

We all know how successful New Year’s resolutions are. Most people make big resolutions and fall off the wagon within a few days. The better approach is if we set a few small goals and keep to them. We get a few “wins” and that can snowball into more and more, and then over time, we see just how far we have come. Sounds familiar? It’s the same recipe I have written about in terms of getting out of debt. I think the most successful approach is not to pay off the biggest debt first, but rather start with the smallest debt. When you knock that out, it’s a huge victory, and that will enable more debts to be paid off.

Just like the key to self-improvement is to make small, simple changes, Yom Kippur is very much a day of simplicity. No one tries to impress his friend; it’s nothing fancy, just a return to the basics and a fresh start.

I think the Maimonidian principle of being put in the same situation but this time prevailing against the evil inclination and not sinning can be applied to our financial lives as well. You add money to your investment account.

Are you going to try and beat the odds and buy an individual stock, just like you have done in past years, only to watch the stock market surge and your picks tread water at best? Or are you going to learn your lesson and put your money into an index fund?

You received an end-of-year bonus. Are you going to save some of it or use it to pay off debt, or are you going to have a blowout summer vacation like you have done in the past and have no long-term savings and a mortgage that is suffocating you?

During the 10 days of repentance, a central focus of the liturgy is when we say, “Renew our days as of old,” which means it’s time to start with a clean slate. Leave all your financial baggage behind and focus on making smart money decisions.

Use the new year as a launchpad to get back to financial basics and make smart money decisions. Realize that you may not be able to do a 180 and go from financial chaos to financial security in a few months. It’s a process. And like any process, it’s step-by-step and takes time. But with effort, focus, and the drive to make a real change in your situation, you can be successful, and this time next year you will look back and see just how much has been accomplished.

May we all merit to be inscribed in the book of life.

Gmar chatima tova.

The information contained in this article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. or its affiliates.

Aaron Katsman is the author of Retirement GPS: How to Navigate Your Way to A Secure Financial Future with Global Investing (McGraw-Hill), and is a licensed financial professional both in the United States and Israel, and helps people who open investment accounts in the United States. Securities are offered through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. (www.prginc.net). Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, SIFMA, FSI. For more information, call (02) 624-0995 visit www.aaronkatsman.com or email aaron@lighthousecapital.co.il.