Material components:
Participants take turns reading paragraphs.
Today we celebrate Rosh Hashana – the Jewish new year. This day, and Yom Kippur which occurs ten days later, is part of a journey of self-improvement. According to Orthodox Judaism, on Yom Kippur, God seals everyone’s fate for the year. Therefore, people spend Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and the days between the two thinking about their mistakes and begging for forgiveness. God does not exist. Therefore, we need to hold ourselves and each other accountable. And help each other grow. Today is about self-improvement and growth. Today is the start of a journey to do better.
A year has 365 days. That is, 365 days to make mistakes. To procrastinate. To accidentally hurt those we care about. To hurt those we don’t care about. To not make the world the type of place we want it to be. But it also means 365 days to do better. To try harder. To save the world. To improve ourselves. To help those around us. To help those far from us.
And that is what today is about. Making this next year a year of 365 days that we will be proud to have lived.
Now we light a candle for our mistakes.
Participants pass the candle around the circle and each say one mistake they made this year. Then the candle is lit.
This candle will burn out before the night is over. Our mistakes are in the past. This year, we will do better.
Our mistakes are in the past, but we cannot forget our mistakes. For we must learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others both in the past and the present. It is the lessons we learn and the recognition of our flaws that let us do better.
“Never confess to me that you are just as flawed as I am unless you can tell me what you plan to do about it. Afterward you will still have plenty of flaws left, but that’s not the point; the important thing is to do better, to keep moving ahead, to take one more step forward. Tsuyoku naritai!”
-Eliezer Yudkowsky
Therefore, we will use the candle of our mistakes to light the candle of growth.
Participants pass the candle of mistakes around and say what they learned from their mistake. Then it is used to light the candle of growth.
In Judaism, on Rosh Hashana we begin to take the steps of growth and self-improvement. We begin to atone for our sins. On Yom Kippur, god seals our fate for the year. We will live or die. The year will be full of suffering or joy.
There is no god. No one determining our worth based on how well we take those steps and how well we beg God to be lenient. But those ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, they are ten days to create habits. Ten days to take steps to make the good behaviors we endorse more likely to occur in this next year.
Tonight we take the first step. We create a plan to develop habits. And now we light the third candle to symbolize our commitment to following through and taking steps to ensure that these behaviors we endorse become habits and not fleeting hopes.
The third candle is lit.
On our own, we are powerless.
“I feel like my internal feeling of how good I am at epistemic rationality is a piss poor measure of how good I am at it. If I can’t trust my intuitions about one thing, it’s ‘how good I am at not trusting my intuition’.”
-Jacob Falkovich
But together, we are strong.
Our power and our strength is holding each other accountable and pointing out the irrationalities in each other.
We can recognize our mistakes, know our flaws, want to grow, and try to develop habits. But if we don’t have each other to help us, we are unlikely to succeed.
So the next candle represents accountability. It represents our willingness to help each other and our desire to be helped on this journey of growth.
In small groups, participants hold the candle together and light it together. In larger groups, participants hold each other’s hands while the candle is lit.
Progress is not always a straight line of improvement. Sometimes, the graph of progress looks like a mountain range of growth and failures.
Sometimes, that means that our plan simply needs more time to work. Other times, that means that our plan needs to be changed.
But without reflection and data, it is impossible to know the best way to proceed.
This next candle represents evidence. It signifies the data we will gather and the later date on which we will analyze the data, reflect on our progress, and change our plan as necessary.
The fifth candle is lit.
A rationalist should win.
“The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy’s cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.”
-Miyamoto Musashi
It is not enough to think about doing better. We must intend to do better. We must win.
These five candles, they combine to become our future.
Mistakes.
Growth.
Commitment.
Accountability.
Evidence.
This year, we will do better.