What's in Your Jonah File?

Tradition tells us that there is a Sefer Hayim,  a book of life into which all our deeds and thoughts are written.  During the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we  have the opportunity to change these entries though repentance, prayer and acts of charity, before these entries are tallied and our fates are determined.

Imagine that in this Sefer Hayim, there is a section for each of us called  a Jonah File, named after the prophet Jonah,  whose story is read on Yom Kippur afternoon.

This painting, by a child, depicts Jonah fleeing a task God has given him. Our Jonah File  has two parts, a list of all our talents and achievements, and a list of all the opportunities we haves avoided to add to the quality of life of others.  On Yom Kippur the two sections are evaluated against each other, and our fates are determined. 

The psychologist Abraham Maslow has given us a perspective for our own evaluation.  Maslow states, in The Farther Reaches of Human Nature,

"We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under the most perfect conditions, under conditions of great courage. We enjoy and even thrill to the godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities. So often, we run away from the responsibilities dictated, or rather suggested by nature, by fate, even sometimes by accident, just as Jonah tried in vain to run away from his fate."