Yom Kippur: Partner Track

[Music] the focal point of all the prayers leading up to Y Kipper is vdu the confession we confess all our sins and ask God to forgive us and then we get to Yom Kipper itself and start to pray and guess what's front and center yep confession later on confession afternoon service you guessed it confession we spend all day confessing the same sins over and over I mean I get the Jewish guilt but come on why does God care if I eat this or that say act or speak in a certain way do these little details matter doesn't he have bigger issues to deal with and how many times do I have to say I'm sorry do I have to get him my hands and knees and beg I mean isn't he supposed to be the all merciful I got my answer in a place I'd least expected a corporate law firm one of my first jobs was as an associate at a large New York law firm one of those massive legal institutions with hundreds of lawyers billing thousands of hours here's the career path you start as an associate and after close to a decade of servitude I mean substantive legal experience you get a shot at reaching the ultimate becoming a partner being a partner is Law Firm terminology for you've arrived well one day I walked into the office and saw a colleague of mine who is an eighth year associate this was his year to make partner I said good morning and took a double take he looked horrible he had one of those something terrible just happened and I'm trying not to cry in public because I'm a guy look you see guys are only permitted to cry in public on two occasions at the end of the movie Rudy and never are you okay I asked him he nodded trying not to look me right in the eye I said what's going on he said I just had a conversation with the chairman of the group uhoh I knew where this was going I've been killing myself for 8 years 3,000 hours a year you know what that means that's every night till 12 weekend for almost a decade no family no life all work every year they pat me on the back you're doing great keep up the good work and now when it's my turn to be partner he calls me in and says the partners met and well you're not partnership material that's it thanks for the years please don't let the door hit you on the way out now when I heard this I freaked out I called up a friend who's a partner at another law firm and said as a young associate how do I know when you're doing great is just lip service easing you down a road to nowhere and this is what he said you know they like you not when they patch you on the back but when they take the time to give you constructive feedback when they review your work point out mistakes and give you tough assignments you see no one's perfect we all know that when the partners put in the time and effort to help you understand your weaknesses then you know they believe in you and are grooming you for the next level why are we constantly confessing throughout the high holidays it's not because God is upset with us it's because he cares about us his system is for our benefit and when we're off he wants us to be better to groom us for the next level why do we keep on confessing over and over so we realize just how significant we are to him we say sorry and then say it again we need to think about getting better acting with more patience being stronger Kinder nicer Holier and then we say it again in think why does he care about the nuances of my life and then again and think could it be that he cares about the nuances of my life and then again and hopefully it hits us he cares about every single Nuance of my life I mean in God's eyes am I on partnership track are there greater people that he should work with I'm the pat on the bad guy but he's not doing that with me he's pushing me he's working me he's preparing in me Yom Kipper is the time when God himself comes to the world to conduct the spiritual review only because of how much he believes in us and he hopes that through this process we start to believe in [Music] ourselves