Surrendering to what lies beyond our control can be liberating.

Accepting our powerlessness before God can paradoxically be empowering.

The final verses of the Torah, which we read on Simchat Torah, describing the last days of Moshe's life, show us how.

Vezot Habracha, the final parsha of the Torah, ends with a startling lesson. Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest leader of the Jewish People, stands at the edge of the Promised Land after forty years of leading his people towards it. He sees the land, but never enters it. And his death brings the Chumash to a close with one of his greatest missions still unfinished.

Drawing on Pirkei Avot, the Rambam, Rashi and Rav Eliyahu Dessler, Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein shows why surrender before God is not a defeat. The Rambam notices something the Mishnah leaves off its list, and that omission reveals exactly where human power lies. Knowing what belongs to us and what belongs to God can become a source of real freedom.

Then the question goes further. What does success mean if you never finish the work? The last verse of the Torah names Moshe's greatest achievement, and Rashi's reading of it is the last thing anyone would expect. It changes the very meaning of success and failure.

• The Mishnah lists what happens to us against our will. What does it leave out, and why does so much depend on that omission?

• What would change if you stopped carrying the outcomes of your life as though they were yours to guarantee?

• How can the greatest leader who ever lived leave the central mission of his life unfinished?

• If it is not upon us to complete the work, what exactly is being asked of us?

• Why would the final verse of the Torah celebrate a moment that looks, on the surface, like Moshe's greatest failure?

Self-help is one of the most popular genres of books in the world. Walk into any bookstore and the shelves are weighed down with them. Self-development, personal growth, becoming your best self.

This series has been about self-development too. Pirkei Avot is the Torah of who a person can become, what we have been calling Torah bein adam l'atzmo. But the philosophy of self-development from a Torah perspective is very different from contemporary culture. The clue to understanding is in this week's parsha.

Ha'azinu holds 43 verses of poetry that carry the entire sweep of human history: creation, free will, the failures of the early generations, the emergence of Abraham and then of the Jewish people, our own drifting, and the long road to the end of history. It is called the Shirah, the song. The verse instructing us to write it down becomes the source for writing the whole Torah, which tells you that something at the heart of this parsha holds the essence of what Torah is.

It is also read every year in the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Rav Yisrael Salanter read the famous Gemara about the three books opened on Rosh Hashanah in an astounding way, and it answers a question the commentators have been asking for many centuries. How can the Gemara say the righteous are written immediately for life, when every one of us can name righteous people who died this year?

His answer reframes what the judgment of these days is asking of us. And it reveals a radically different way of understanding what self-development is actually for.

• Self-development is one of the biggest industries in the world. What does the Torah think it is actually for?

• How can working on yourself become the very thing that blocks your growth?

• In all the generations back to Sinai, not one let the chain break. What did that cost the people who carried it?

• The Gemara says the righteous are written immediately for life. What do we do with the righteous people who died this year?

• What changes if you are not the point of your own self-improvement?

What are we actually meant to be doing on Rosh Hashanah?

What are the goals of the day? What does an ideal Rosh Hashanah look like? What should be going through your mind when you are sitting in shul?

The answer to these questions can completely change your experience of Rosh Hashanah this year, and, even, transform your entire life.

Every Jewish festival has a clear objective. On Yom Kippur we repent and confess. On Pesach we remember the Exodus. On Sukkot we remember how God protected us in the desert. Each one takes a theme that matters all year round and gives it a specific time of complete focus.

Rosh Hashanah looks like the exception. We never mention sin. There is no explicit reference to repentance. We call it the Day of Judgment, but what does that ask of you when you are sitting in shul with the machzor open in front of you?

The key lies in one line of the Mishnah, which departs from its usual legal language and turns poetic. On Rosh Hashanah, all who pass through this world come before God one by one, in single file. Not as a congregation. Not as a family. Alone.

Drawing on Pirkei Avot, the Rambam, Rabbeinu Yonah and the Rema, Chief Rabbi Goldstein explores the mitzvah that lies at the heart of Rosh Hashanah and gives meaning to its judgment, its prayers, the shofar and the kingship of God.

We call these days the Yamim Noraim. Many people hear that as the days of dread. But the phrase is better understood as the Awesome Days. Understanding why can transform not only our experience of Rosh Hashanah, but the way we live throughout the year.

• Every other festival tells us exactly what to do. What is Rosh Hashanah actually asking of us?

• What does it mean to be judged on a day when we never once mention sin?

• We spend Rosh Hashanah surrounded by family and community. Why does the Mishnah describe us coming before God one by one?

• What does it really mean to call Rosh Hashanah one of the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe?

• Can two days of the year really change how a person lives the other 363 days?