You are a scientist. Your mission is to find the cure to a terrible disease. A powerful and wealthy INVESTOR is ready to spend yearly one million dollars in you. He trusts you. He believes that you can find the cure and He gives you the money for one year. In twelve months He will meet with you again to examine your progress together with you. He will not expect you to find the cure in one year. And He is willing to keep investing in you. To reinvest, however, He wants to make sure that you are advancing and that you did the best you could to find the cure. And if you have made mistakes (you probably did!) He wants to know that you are capable to admit those mistakes.
At the time of the annual meeting you should identify your mistakes and articulate them in front of Him. Then, He knows that you will probably not repeat them next year. He also knows that precisely those mistakes, when recognized by you, have the potential to get you closer to find the cure. However, if you deny your mistakes and refuse to look back and detect where you've failed, you will probably make those mistakes again. And if you do so, then you become a questionable investment. He might withdraw His money and fund a better investment.
God is the INVESTOR. He invested in us. He gave us our lives. And He expects us to make good use of the numerous resources He generously granted us (health, wisdom, food, etc.). He has high expectations from us. Because every one of us has the potential to make a great positive impact in His world, improve our own lives and the lives of others.
Each year, in Rosh haShana, we meet with our INVESTOR. We should hear in the sounds of the Shofar the voice of our INVESTOR asking us what have we done with "the money" (=life, and everything we need to live) He invested in us. We should realize that the resources for the next term are not automatically granted. Rather, they are in theory contingent to our achievements in this term. We have to show that we have not wasted His "money" doing nothing. And that we are capable of identifying our mistakes and learning from them.
In Rosh haShana we have to persuade God that we are a profitable investment for Him. Or at least that we can become one.
Candle lighting in NYC today at 7:04 pm