Rabbi Stiefel's Monthly Article

Current August/September 2026 

Rabbi Sharon Stiefel 

Heshbon Hanefesh: An Accounting of the Soul 

I come from a family of accountants. Growing up, there were always ledger pads, adding machines, and stacks of receipts around the house. I learned to balance a checkbook and reconcile credit card statements. During tax season, many other things simply had to wait. 

As we approach the High Holidays, we enter the Jewish equivalent of tax season. We are invited to engage in heshbon hanefesh, an accounting of the soul. We take stock of our lives, reconciling our actions with the values we aspire to live by. 

The Hebrew word heshbon means counting, assessing, or taking account. In modern Hebrew, it is also the word for a bill, the reckoning that comes at the end of a meal. It shares a Hebrew root with machshavah (thought) and chashuv (important), reminding us that this is not simply an exercise in counting but an important process of reflection. Hanefesh means "the soul." Together, heshbon hanefesh is the sacred work of taking an honest inventory of our inner lives. 

This practice was given its name in the early nineteenth century by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Lefin of Ukraine. In his Sefer Heshbon Hanefesh (Book of Spiritual Accounting), he encouraged people to cultivate character through regular self-examination, journaling, and intentional practice. Drawing inspiration from Benjamin Franklin's system of self-improvement, Rabbi Lefin adapted it into a distinctly Jewish path, inviting us to examine qualities such as patience, humility, justice, truthfulness, diligence, and equanimity.

A similar practice appears in Twelve-Step programs, where Step Ten encourages participants to "continue to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admit it." Growth begins with honest self-examination.

Alan Morinis, a teacher of Mussar, the Jewish tradition of ethical self-reflection and character development, describes heshbon hanefesh as opening old shoeboxes stored deep within us. We sort through long-forgotten patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior to create an honest balance sheet of our lives. By bringing hidden habits into the light, we become more capable of choosing who we want to become.

Like any good accounting, however, heshbon hanefesh is not only about liabilities. It is also about assets. Judaism begins not with the notion of original sin, but with the belief that we are created with an innate capacity for goodness. Our spiritual accounting, then, does not just ask, "Where have I fallen short?" but also, "What strengths, gifts, and acts of kindness have I cultivated, and how can I build upon them in the year ahead?"

Each of us has a different ledger to examine. The work is deeply personal. During these weeks leading to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, may we find the courage to look honestly at our lives with humility, compassion and hope, and may our accounting lead not to self-judgment, but to growth, healing, and renewal.