Accentuate the Positive

Sin, guilt, and wrong-doing are staples of the High Holy Days. This is the time each year when Jews around the world meticulously examine the past year and remember all the ways they screwed up. The literal translation of the Hebrew “chet” (sin) is “missing the mark”. All of those missed marks can result in enormous feelings of guilt.

But yesterday our second rabbi Toby challenged us to put our natural feelings of guilt aside and instead to look at what we have done right in the past year. Much of her sermon focused on the following song, which came out in 1944.

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AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE (Mister In-Between)

(Johnny Mercer / Harold Arlen)

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?

(Oh, listen to me children and-a you will hear
About the elininatin' of the negative
And the accent on the positive)
And gather 'round me children if you're willin'
And sit tight while I start reviewin'
The attitude of doin' right

(You've gotta accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between)

You've got to spread joy (up to the maximum)
Bring gloom (down) down to the minimum
Otherwise (otherwise) pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate (well illustrate) my last remark (you got the floor)
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they say (what did they say)
Say when everything looked so dark

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No! Don't mess with Mister In-Between
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The bottom line is that a positive attitude is the key to happiness.

I’ve done many things I later regretted during the past year. But none of them seems so bad when I consider the good things I have also done.

Thanks, Toby, for asking us to look at the bright side of things.

And thanks also to the 7 individuals who spanned 4 decades in age and who gave us a symphony of shofars in yesterday’s Rosh Hashanah service. It was indeed a moment of AWE!