We’re settling into the habit of saying the selichot, penitential prayers. Increasingly I feel that teshuvah is a matter of becoming conscious of others and of remaining in that view. It’s true that substantial parts of the selichot need to be said when a minyan is present. But there is much to be said for waking up with them, as it were, which is how I’m saying them now. I’ve taken to saying them, not literally, but as I remember them, having adapted them from digital texts that I found on-line. Also, I’m saying the selichot as part of my walking meditation. The akedah, which is such a central theme throughout the High Holidays and in the selichot, could be described as one long, meditative walk up the mountain. Lately I’ve begun to reflect how alike are chöd and the akedah. I see Yitzhak as an aspiring jewish chödpa and Avraham as his teacher. It’s clear that the fact that there will be another sacrificial animal is already known to Avraham when they set out. It is customary to see the akedah as a story about Avraham’s samaya, but I think this is only half of what is going on. My theory is, that the entire akedah is a set-up, aimed at having Yitzhak conquer his fear of dying. Only then can Gd’s kedusha be experienced fully, and this is why the akedah is so necessary for his development. To instruct him in offering himself as a sacrifice, al shem shamayim.