"Every tomorrow has two handles. You can take hold of the handle of anxiety or the handle of enthusiasm. Upon our choice, so will be our day."
This simple but profound idea came to me as I began to recollect my experiences of a magnificent and spiritual uplifting Yom Tov in our city of Holiness Yerushalayim. No one can deny how exhilarating it is to be עולה רגל, walking with our Esrog and Lulav,to the Kotel, as was done all those years ago, by countless of people as they visited the Bes Hamikdash, to recite their Tephilos and to embrace the Daled Minim, as they sang הודו להי כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו. What a great Z’chut it was for my family to wave our Lulav in the same way and to feel a tremendous closeness to Hashem standing on this אדמת קודש, with the הר הבית, in our view.
I am reminded of the story told about the Rizhiner Rebbe, who came home to find his little child crying. "Why the tears?” He asked. "Because I have been playing hide and seek.” “But that's no reason to cry,” said the Rebbe. "It is, Papa, because no one came seeking,” cried the youngster.
A poignant story relating what life is all about. When we are hiding we are alone with our fears and doubts and our misgivings, but when we are seeking we can't be hiding.
At those moments at the Kotel, I felt that we were seekers not hiders. We were seeking the ways and means as a community, to bring us closer to each other. But more so, to climb the ladder of Yakov, מוצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמים, feeling the pull of Kedusha, uplifting our Yiddish Neshamot to a Higher Madrega, bringing about greater spirituality and greater works of love and kindness.
This is the attraction of spending Yom Kippur and Succot, in Israel. It is a time to reinvigorate our lives with greater feelings of Kedusha and Spirituality.This was even more evident as I davened with a truly great Tzadek, and Posek, Harav Hagaon Avigdor Nebenzahl s’hlita, in a private minyan on Hashanah Rabah, as we lifted our voices in unison, beseeching the Almighty, הושיעה נא,הצליחה נא.
This idea comes to mind as we are introduced to our Forefather, Avraham as he is told to leave his father’s house and begin to travel to the Promised Land on his journey of bring about the Jewish Nation.
The Parsha begins, לך לך, Go! The obvious question would be, “Why the two similar words, לך,the direction could have been said with just one לך. I am inclined to understand that though they are the same words meaning To Go, there is a great significance to the repetition. It means more than, merely, to travel. The second לך is to influence you, to go unto yourself, to look into your inner self. “Now is the time” G-D said to Avraham, “Look into yourself, search out your Tafkid in life and to do so, successfully, you need to emotionally and philosophically search your inner being in such a way that your best will be brought out, leading you on the true path of the life that Hashem has mapped out for you.
This is the lesson I took with me from the exhilarating time, I spent in Israel, and a lesson for all time. Our spiritual journey must begin with a search for our inner being , for our inner soul ,that will direct us on the path of life that will bring about our true Tafkid, a Tafkid of Chesed, of Kedusha, of Ahavas Habriyos, and a true fulfillment of Ahavas Hashem.
SHABBAT SHALOM
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