A thought a day on each of the Torah readings of the year for Elul and the High Holy Days culminating around Simchat Torah - I might actually get through all the parshiot!

For today, Bereisheet, the first parashah of the Torah - and filled with easy wisdom, like don't get so filled with jealous anger that we kill our brothers. Here's God's warning to Cain from Genesis, Chapter 4:

Gen. 4:7 Is it not thus: If you intend good, bear-it-aloft, but if you do not intend good, at the entrance is sin, a crouching-demon, toward you his lust - but you can rule over him. (Translation from Schocken Bible)

Lesson for Elul for today - anger and bad intentions are part of us, let us try to accept them without guilt, and rule over them. The path to bad actions is paved with allowing our destructive tendencies to rule us.