A Different You

We’ve been this way before.

We talked about real change already last year and the year before for all the good that it did.  In better times maybe we could squeeze out yet another few years with talkin’ mode set to cruise control.

But these aren’t better times.

In numerous pieces over the course of the last two years we have stressed the point that real change is not about tinkering at the edges.  As we said in EmunahSpeak: Red Alert!, 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 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.

And finally in EmunahSpeak: A Gut Rehab, which was written in response to Sandy one day after the lights came back on, we cranked it up yet another notch:

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.

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. 

Intellectually speaking, what’s left to say?  We have the talk down pretty good but, motivationally speaking, how do we morph the talk into the walk?

Someone’s life may depend on it.

Last Elul, Rabbi Yigal Haimoff was diagnosed with the dreaded makla, r”l and the prognosis wasn’t all that good.  At a gathering of 400 people at Rabbi Haimoff’s shul, Rabbi Mordechai Aderet said the following:

The Rebbe needs a very big refuah sheleima so what are you going to do about it?  And then for close to an hour he pounded them as he proceeded to very forcefully drive home the point that their Rabbis life was in their hands.

Rabbi Haimoff’s chemo protocol called for six heavy duty treatments.  After number three his doctor told him that he could not find any trace of the makla anywhere.

So what happened?

We said above that you have to become a different you, period.  And that’s pretty much the long and short of it.  Some women began to cover their hair while others threw away their slacks.  Couples with serious marital problems made up.  And there were those who used to tip toe around the periphery of Shabbos observance that finally jumped in with both feet.  And so it went.

No small changes these.  You start by looking into the mirror long enough to see past your present image to a different you.

We said in EmunahSpeak: If You Feel Blessed that if Hashem gives us more, we understand from the structure of the mitzvahs that we are supposed to do more than we have heretofore done.
 

Or put another way, if you feel blessed you should be putting a little more on the table.

Fuggedaboutit.

We see from Rabbi Haimoff’s congregants that when the scales of life and death are being balanced in your face you put yourself on the table, not a little more.

What wouldn’t someone do for a sick relative or friend or to marry off a daughter?

If you have been paying attention you're about to find out.