The give and take of our daily existence has been something
of rocky road as of late. Tragic murders committed by our own, terrorist
murders committed by the usual suspects, the placement of what was once the
world’s richest and greatest country on a road leading to a Third World
existence, and a seemingly unending spectacle of the Ribbono Shel Olam’s koach
as manifested in “Nature” all over the world, including a local appearance in
the form of an earthquake, with the serious possibility of a devastating
hurricane (Irene) following in its wake only 72 hours down the road, have all
taken a toll on our equilibrium.
Sort
of catches the current wave, mood wise, doesn’t it?
And in Red
Alert! we also quoted from EmunahSpeak:
Now We Know, in which we averred,
in response to the murder of little Leiby Kletzky, a"h, that:
Everyone
seems to be in agreement with the suggestion that we should all take on
something, be it increased tzeddakah, a commitment to work on a given middah,
Shimiras HaLoshon or anything else that will strengthen our Yiddishkeit.
To that we added
the following:
Maybe we
should be taking on two somethings rather than one. The first, which is
reactive to the potch, conveys our understanding that Hashem is very upset with
us, our present confusion as to the details notwithstanding.
That second
something is proactive and carries a simple message:
Please,
Hashem, let there be no next time.
In light of
all the tragedies that have both subsequently befallen us and are presently
hovering over us (Hashem should protect us) coupled with the very unraveling of
the secure world we have known these past sixty plus years, “taking on
something” doesn’t quite hack it anymore.
Events have
moved so rapidly that even the suggestion to take on “two somethings,” a
suggestion which I thought was a big deal at the time (merely a month ago)
doesn’t come close to addressing our predicament as it presently exists at
street level.
The days
where we could throw Hashem a bone so to speak and go about our business are
over.
We suggested
there that we all have to look within ourselves with laser like penetration
at everything, not just something, and then take on as much as we can
handle, each and everyone according to his strength of character.
And this was
pre-Irene, long before Sandy
traumatized a number of communities in the Tri-State area leaving an incredible
amount of destruction in her wake.
What should we
say now?
In EmunahSpeak:
A Real Deal Teshuva, we pointed
out that teshuva is not a once a year spiritual form of Pesach cleaning or
something to be pulled out of the bull pen on the ruchniyas equivalent of rainy
days, to level out the speed bumps that we invariably hit as we navigate our
way through the minefield of life’s challenges.
And,
according to the Rambam, it’s not enough to do Teshuva for the sins we have
done. We also have to do Teshuva for who we are if we’re not who we should be,
because a lot of life’s challenges reside within, in the form of bad character
traits, which also require Teshuva.
The bottom
line here is that we don’t just change our actions and call it a day.
It’s not
simply that yesterday I did, while now I no longer do, but rather that
yesterday I was, while today I no longer am. The growth process is about changing you.
Change your desires. Change your ideals.
Change your desires. Change your ideals.
As I watched all
of the sheet rock being ripped out from the first floor of my house which took
a hit during Sandy I came to terms with the bottom line meaning of changing you…change your desires, and change your
ideals.
In the ruins of
Long Beach, Belle Harbor, Seagate, and Staten Island, to name but a few of the
worst hit areas, Hashem has revealed to us where we go from here. The gut rehab
that hundreds of us are doing to all or part of our houses is a moshol for the
gut rehab we have to do to ourselves.
You have to
become a different
you, period.
And we don’t
mean doing the Daf, writing a big check for disaster relief, or becoming a
regular on the Shemiras HaLoshon Hot Line or at the Ohel Sara Amen Group.
As we said
above, The days where we could throw Hashem a bone so to speak and go about
our business are over.
We’re talking
Tikkun HaMiddos here as the Mesillas Yesharim understands it. Simply put, in
paralleling what we are doing to our houses we have to rip out our gaiva,
taiva, kas, and kina and toss it into the dumpster with the sheet rock.
Anyone who
thinks he can get away with less shouldn’t live anywhere near the water.
