Amidst his final swan song, by request of The Divine, Moses authors a song on behalf of the Torah so that all the Jewish people can remember the story and laws set before them. In teaching this song to the Israelites, Moses remarks that it is the obligation for each and every Israelite to “write down this song for themselves.” This line is transformed into my favorite mitzvah – that each person is obligated to write an entire Torah scroll. While I have a front row seat to witness the work of Sofrut (ritual Hebrew Calligraphy) thanks to my partner Rachel, the thought of writing all 304,805 letters of a Sefer Torah is tremendously overwhelming.  

However, the great scholar Maimonides gives us a beautiful insight. He teaches that if you can, you absolutely should write a Torah even if you inherited one from your family. But he also understands that’s a lofty ask – so he clarifies that anyone who fixes Torah, it is as if you are like Moses receiving that Torah directly at Mt. Sinai. The line between a ritually unfit Torah and a Kosher one can be as tiny as the stroke of a quill. The act of discovering a mistake, previously unnoticed, no matter its size and making that tikkun, can turn unfit to fit. 

My blessing for us as we enter into this new year that perhaps feels taunting, whose expectations may feel unobtainable, is that we are reminded that our work can be as simple as correcting one small thing, one relationship, one thing left unsaid, one vestigial remnant of a broken system.