Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Exorcising Old Demons

I was riding my bike downtown yesterday and was about to go through a puddle in a part of the street I have ridden over literally 100s of times before.  Seeing the puddle triggered a nearly 50 year old memory my father driving home from my grandparents one Sunday afternoon.  There was a dip in the road and it had been raining, so the road was covered in an inch or so of water.  My Dad slowed down and I asked him why.  "You never know what's under a puddle of water.  It could be a few inches deep or a few feet deep."  That's the end of the memory and it all that happened in less than an instant, but I had a lump in my throat as I went through that puddle faster then I liked.  I am sure my Dad had no intention of making a life lesson out of slowing down, but apparently he did.  I was rattled that a very minor incident that happened nearly 50 years ago could still cause me anxiety.

Avraham Avinu was told to go from "your land, your birthplace, and your father's house."  The Malbim notes that a person's attitudes and personality trait (t'chunos u'midos) are formed by his land (its mazal and air), his city, and his father's house.  Avraham Avinu was being told to separate himself from everything that formed him mentally and spiritually so he could start anew.  Our illustrious ancestor had recognized his Creator at three years old, had realized that his Creator loved him and desired a relationship with him by the time he was 40, and had been on an active kiruv campaign for 35 years.  Now, at 75 when Avraham Avinu worked with every fiber of his being to come close to HaShem he was being told, "Take it in steps; leave first the attitudes of your country, then your city, and finally work on those things you learned in your father's house."  Even very minor incidents in our father's house can have a lifelong impact.  Even an Avraham Avinu at 75 needs to take things deliberately and in stages.  There is no shame in having issues that need work; the only shame is giving up.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Shabbo
Post a Comment
Read more