A House of Cards: A No Yeast Blog

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Dear readers, we are close enough for me to admit that I suffer from opsomania. Don’t worry, I won’t have you scrambling for your dictionaries--maybe just scramble some eggs.  Opsomania is the abnormal love for one kind of food. In my case it’s, bagels. But as Passover arrives it’s not an option. I cannot deny that every year, as I sip away at my morning latte, I lament the loss of my favorite carb and my spirit sadly flattens like a whole wheat matzah.

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But Passover is not just about slicing off bread from the menu or getting rid of the last possible crumbs from our fridge. It is also a divinely sanctified time for us to take an introspective look at ourselves, to clean up our spiritual crumbs, and to commit ourselves to doing things differently and better today than we did yesterday. It’s about scrutinizing our habits, cravings and entire life with questioning and honest eyes. A thorough and honest search often reveals that we are much crumbier than we realize or care to admit. On Passover we are reminded that Chametz (leavened dough) is equivalent to arrogance – it is the exact opposite of the Torah ideal.

The yeast that makes bread rise is compared to a man’s swollen pride and self-puffery. Yet matzahs are hardly attention seekers. Everything about them bespeaks humility. And indeed, they are a needed reminder to a people who often bloated by their own success, forget that at any moment history can take the air right out of them. The destiny of a Jew can pivot in a second. G-d’s chosen people historically has had to go to sleep at night with their running shoes on. 

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Repeatedly in Jewish history we have seen that Jews can be up one day and under the heel of its enemies the next. One day Joseph was the viceroy and savior of Egypt until his people were rendered slaves of Egypt. German Jews were also respected citizens of their beloved Vaterland, Deutschland until they were cremated and gassed to death. Jews living in the Diaspora are welcome guests in their host countries until they are not and then they must flee for their lives. One moment Jews are simply living life and the next second, even in their own homeland, are gunned down, stabbed and run over by terrorists. 

A thinking man must ask, “Why?” Passover is the perfect time for such introspection. It is a holiday called by a few names: One is, Chag HaHerut, i.e., the holiday of freedom. What are we doing with our freedom? When G-d smashed Egypt along with its idols and freed His nation, He told the Israelites:  

 

“You saw what I did in Egypt, carrying you on eagles' wings and bringing you to Me. Now if you obey Me and keep My covenant, you will be My special treasure among all nations, because all the world is Mine.

 

You will be for Me a Kingdom of Priests and a holy people.”  (Exodus 19:5-6) 

Do we resemble that beautiful vision G-d had of us at all? Are we behaving like a holy people or liked a puffed-up holey bagel, all inflated around an empty core? 

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The Passover Haggadah reminds us that each generation must consider that it was they themselves who came out of Egypt and not their ancestors. We are free and safe at anytime only by G-d’s will. We must earn our redemption daily. Israel has to pray every day for rain while its neighbor Egypt is irrigated by the Nile. G-d demands a constant unique relationship with us and in all our interactions. He wanted us to be a “special treasure,” to become polished gems through His Torah. But, instead we throw away His commandments like unwanted crumbs and fashion our lives like oil-rich bread loaves molded in the shape and service of foreign gods. 

There’s a price to pay for walking away from Hashem.  “You shall fear the L-rd, your G-d, worship Him, and swear by His name. Or What? “Lest the wrath of the L-rd, your G-d, be kindled against you, and destroy you off the face of the earth.” It is the Eleventh principle of Jewish faith to believe that G-d rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those who don’t. Our enemies are just the sticks that G-d uses to hit us, albeit enthusiastic sticks. The irrational quality of Jew hatred should make us realize that something “irrational,” something exceptional, something beyond the physical reality we cling to, is at play. Rabbi Avraham Tanis says: “Man believes in himself and questions the Almighty, when really, we should believe in the Almighty and question ourselves.” 

My friends, Jewish destiny is as brittle as a matzah. And even as we succeed, let's not forget who is puffing the air into our well being. So let’s try to make every effort to remember we are Jews and show it in ways that are important to G-d, i.e., by observing His Torah.  

Yes, these days are different than all other days. For one, I will miss my bagels. Secondly, it's an apt time to acknowledge that at the center of that sesame-seeded symbol of pride is a big fat zero--an accurate evaluation of what we are without G-d as the core. And so, as we munch on our matzahs, it’s the perfect time for us to reflect upon our more savory days and take note of Who really is buttering our bread or making us choke with each bite. 

Happy Passover!

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Does Your Tongue Need Boot Camp?

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Does your tongue need boot camp? There's a day for that; It's called Yom Kippur. We spend the whole day praying instead of tongue wagging and abstain from eating instead of pacifying our thousands of demanding taste buds. Twenty-five hours of repurposing and disciplining an eight-muscled tongue is no small effort when 364 days of the year it is granted free reign. And so, with parched tongues, as people exit the synagogue at the end of the holiday, I’ve noticed that most whom I’ve encountered, family and friends, will stop themselves mid-sentence, when they are about to comment negatively on something or someone they saw that day. The sentence will start with, “Did you see how So and So looked? And will be self-interrupted with, “Ah, I just finished praying, it’s a New Year. I don’t want to talk bad.”  

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Indeed, showing great promise, at the end of the very intense Day of Atonement, our tongues seem to know better. But as the awe of the day loses its grip on us and the savory break fast meal moistens our mouths, we quickly forget our prayers of repentance and all the hours we spent begging to be sealed in the Book of Life. Our tongues resume old habits and give life to the language of death, the language of the snake who talked bad about G-d to entice Eve to sin and successfully brought death to the world--a true and tragic fall from Paradise. For the Torah says that when G-d blew life into Adam, he became a "speaking being." And thus a person's speech is an expression of the very soul that G-d breathes into him,   making gossiping, slandering, spreading rumors--true or false--all sins. Deadly ones!

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With His love He breathed life into our mouths and with that very same vessel we spew hate, mischief, curses and falsehoods. As delectable as fresh gossip may be, know that our tongues can effectively lick our names write out of the Book of Life and write an entirely new biography, one with a scary ending. The Talmud states that every word which issues from our mouths, whether good, evil, by mistake, or on purpose, is written in a book: “Then those who feared the L-rd spoke with one another; the L-rd has hearkened and listened, and a book of remembrance has been written before Him […].”  So please tell me, with the stakes so high, from all the role models in the Torah, from Moses to Queen Esther, why would you want to emulate the snake?

In this week’s Torah reading we learn how talking bad about people and slander can you make you ugly. The punishment for it is a skin disease called tzarat (miscalled leprosy). Moses’ own sister, Miriam, is punished with an ephemeral bout of tzarat for talking bad about him.  And even Moses himself was affected by it momentarily. G-d turned his hand white with tzarat, and then back to normal again, after the world’s most humble man was hesitant about G-d’s assignment and said that the elders of Israel wouldn’t believe him. The Talmud says that even when the Messiah comes and all people and animals will be healed of disease and the impure will be made pure, the snake whose scaly skin  actually is leprosy, will not be healed because of his evil words. In this Parasha we also read that it is the duty of the Kohanim, the priestly spiritual leaders, to evaluate the skin diseases of the people, not doctors. Why you ask? Because its cause is spiritual, not medical. There is no suffering, our rabbis teach, without sin. “Plagues only affect a person on account of the evil speech which comes out of his mouth.” (Talmud) With so many variants of Covid, it should make us wonder if we learned our lesson yet. 

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The power of speech is so mighty that G-d created the world not with His hands but with ten utterances. Using the power of speech negatively effectively destroys what He so lovingly created. G-d created the world in seven days and thus we read this week that the slanderer who is diagnosed with tzarat is separated from the community for seven days. “The punishment is measure-for-measure: If you promote divisiveness amongst others, then you will also suffer the divisiveness of separation from the community.”[i]

So here I repeat, the world was created by words, it is sustained by words and it can be destroyed by words. Words never die! We are taught in a Midrash that when Moses smashed the first set of tablets indeed the tablets were destroyed but the words and letters that were upon them, they lived, and they all flew back up to heaven. (Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4:5).

Eleanor Roosevelt is attributed as saying: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” So my dear friends, what are you talking about? I know personally when someone calls me and asks me, “So have you heard the latest?” I know we are not off to a healthy start. If all your friendships revolve around gossiping about others perhaps it’s time to question who your friends are. If today they yap about others be sure that tomorrow they will talk about you. When’s the last time you walked away from a conversation smarter than when you started, more inspired and motivated? Do your friends make you better people or vile and base?  It’s time to question your life’s purpose. Are you a creator or a destroyer? Are you behaving as if you were created in G-d’s image or slithering in the shadows like a sneaky snake.  Click to watch Aliza's Torah  videos on YouTube 

  

I know it’s not easy to stop and  that being a yenta is as contagious as the plagues it causes. But we are better than that. How can we not be? G-d made us! Remember the simple advice we’ve all been told in our life, “Think before you speak.” If we’d be in court in front of a judge we’d measure every word we say. Well we are in front of a Judge, an eternal Judge who is always watching and can’t be fooled. Know before whom you stand!  Watch your mouth and remember most things are better left unsaid.

                                                                                         SHABBAT SHALOM!

URL not Found! What Are You Linked to?

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It’s hard not to think about Moses when we think of Passover. Even if we want to forget, advertisements for Cecil B. Demille’s great production, The Ten Commandments, frequent our TV screens as constant reminders this time of year. And yet, as we sat down for our seders and read through the Haggadah which recounts the great miracles that G-d performed for us, we realize that there is one name that is conspicuously missing, the name of Moses. He is mentioned only once in the entire book. Why? It is meant to teach us something very important: rescue comes only from G-d Himself. All else, i.e., humans, money, vaccines and even Moses, are mere intermediaries serving His will, no matter what role they play in our lives. There is one G-d and thus we must stop deifying everything and everyone else: “The L‑rd took us out of Egypt," not through an angel, not through a seraph and not through a messenger. The Holy One, blessed be He, did it in His glory by Himself!”

You see Passover, which is just around the corner, is not only about cutting bread from the menu or getting rid of the last possible crumbs from our fridge. It is also a divinely sanctified time for us to take an introspective look at ourselves, to clean up our spiritual crumbs, to flatten our egos and to acknowledge the role that G-d plays in our lives. G-d did not just create the world and walk away. He’s a personal G-d; One that went down into Egypt Himself to deliver us from slavery. What are you doing with your freedom? Do you prove yourself worthy?

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We can think of our relationship to G-d like a computer link. If you click on a link and it does not open, then all the advertising that leads to that link, and all the beautiful pictures that lead to that link, and all the hoopla that leads to that link, well they're basically meaningless and useless. When our lives are just surface but they don't link to the greater good, when they don't link to the content-- G-d and His Torah-- then all we are is surface, 2D creations that take up time and space. To live a life in all the dimensions, 3D, we must link to the Source, to the spirit that animates us. Passover is a perfect time to relink the surface of our life with the purpose of our life by reconnecting directly with He who created the entire program.

When we link to the Source, i.e. G-d, then nothing that happens in our lives can defeat us or keep us down. The first principle of the 13 Principles of Faith (the fundamental truths of Judaism and its very foundations) affirms that G-d is the creator and conductor of all that was, is and will be. One has only to repeat this to oneself as a mantra in times of hardship (and joy) to understand that nothing happens unless G-d wants it to, unless He signs off on it. Once we accept that and internalize it, we realize that we are not alone. He is with us always.

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Many of us may feel down and defeated these days. The world is a mess. Many people’s lives have been upended because of Covid, economics, the war in Ukraine or other. Whatever our personal reason, so many feel broken and despaired. But in this week’s parasha, Shemini, we learn a very important lesson. On the eighth day, following the seven days of inauguration, Aaron and his sons begin to officiate as kohanim (priests) in the Tabernacle. But what happened for the seven days before? On those days Moses erected the tabernacle and then disassembled it everyday. Isn’t that weird? Once it’s up logic would suggest to just leave it up. But that seven-day process of building and disassembling and rebuilding was to teach us something very important. In our own lives, sometimes everything we build, indeed with all our heart and might falls apart either piece by piece or in one big blast. Sometimes we just have to take it apart ourselves. But from Moses we learn we must be rebuild, we can rebuild, it is in us to rebuild, G-d wants us to rebuild. But we pause and question: What are we building?

Our problem is that we are always trying to rebuild what we used to be, our honor, our physical form or appearance, our wealth, etc. But if G-d saw it fit to pulverize us, it is certain we were in need of rebuilding and restructuring. G-d knows you can do better, be better and rebuild on holy ground. Hardships are not meant to break us but rather to make us. We must not spend out days crying and bemoaning the past for G-d rests His spirit where there is joy. Even prophets could receive no prophecy while mourning or when sad. We must rebuild with joy and integrity, that is in our hands; the results are in G-d’s.

They say a righteous person falls seven times and gets up eight times. What makes him righteous is that he gets up! So  we too must stop kvetching, reign in our mourning, get up, walk, run and soar for He above is indeed the wind beneath our wings. The link is not broken, we have just to reconnect to the Source and keep going.   Shabbat Shalom

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It's In Your Blood!

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Good thing my juicer can’t sue me for blender abuse,  as every second day another media-proclaimed health guru raises his or her glass to toast to a new concoction that promises to be the cure to everything from the plague to plaque from phlebitis to arthritis. Who wouldn’t be on board? And so, it was not too long ago that I was ready to put down my book of Psalms and take up celery juice instead as the new savior for all my ills, including bone density. (Although Rav Nachman teaches that one’s sins are engraved on one’s bones and I wondered how my green drink would help with that.) Nonetheless, my Ninja and Bullet have been spinning overtime trying to keep up with the latest crazes. Some have even dropped dead from over usage and so I’m back to praying that the flavor of the month will have better results on me than on my electric assistants now resting in appliance heaven.

The problem with today’s society is the desire for the quick fix. The insatiable hunger for magic tonics or potions that will obviate all the responsibilities that go along with being healthy (or being religious.) 

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I have some obvious conclusions to draw from the fact that health crazes and diet books are so popular: We fundamentally believe that we are what we eat, that healthy items make us healthy and that we want to be healthy. And yet God has given his people a “diet book” that ensures that they will be not merely healthy, but HOLY; a diet very unlike my liquidizers whose warranties have long expired, but rather one that has endured through the millennia. Yet we flout God and prefer to believe the spandex-wearing fitness gurus who are fitly dressed to stretch the truth. The sages teach that the food we eat affects much more than our bodies; By eating not kosher we sully our souls, distance ourselves from the Almighty and bring on sicknesses.

In this week’s Torah reading Tzav it is written: “And you shall not eat any blood in any of your dwelling places, whether from birds or from animals. Any person who eats any blood, that soul shall be cut off from its people.” The kabbalists teach that our soul is in our blood and seeing that food feeds our blood it affects our souls as well. The more we learn the depths of our commandments, the more we realize that God is the best diet guru even if He doesn’t have an infomercial. The Talmud states: “That I, blood, am the primary cause of Illness. (Bava Batra 58b) Through a complex process the food we eat turns into blood, feeds our blood.  This is something the Torah taught us way before science came along. Yes, we are what we eat, both physically and spiritually. Keeping kosher is the best diet to be on.

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The Jewish people are allowed to eat only ten animals, none of which hunt for prey. They are docile and peaceful. Our sages have taught that eating animals that lust for blood and go for the kill affects our characters and personalities. If eating an energy bar gives you energy, then how hard is it to believe that eating violent and aggressive animals can transform your energy as well making it ever harder to keep the Torah's commandments, all meant to elevate our animal soul? 

People will often ask if God really cares what I eat for lunch? And the answer is a resounding thunderous, YES. So much so that Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden for eating the forbidden fruit. The first sin revolved around eating and brought about the fall of mankind. It is said of Adam that he was the most gorgeous man that ever lived, but by eating what he should not have, his stature and beauty were diminished. Simply because God said so, food affects us profoundly. When we sin with food, and in general, our inner light is diminished and it shows in the spiritual realm as well as on the earthly plains.

Eating kosher doesn’t just mean avoiding pig and its non-kosher cohorts, it also means not eating “like” a pig. Be a mensch in all your appetites. Have restraint and limitations. Don’t listen to the slithering snake offering you the “forbidden flavors” of an artificial and ephemeral paradise. Eat healthily, take care of the body that God gave you (it's just on loan) but also guard your soul. Body and soul are partners in time, crime and the sublime. One day we will have to give an accounting for our vast intake not just as regards our fitness but before the Eternal Witness who gave us His menu along with the commandment that we not contaminate ourselves: “For I am the Lord your God, and you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, because I am holy, and you shall not defile yourselves ... For I am the Lord Who has brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God. Thus, you shall be holy, because I am holy.” Bon Appétit!

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Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!

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A couple of years ago an article came out “How to Be a Better Human.” It concluded that we say “sorry” way too often. It reasoned that apologies make us appear smaller and timider than we really are and can undercut our confidence.” And in our a society where everything revolves around how the “I” feels, why should one walk around feeling like a small “i” and let you can feel like a big YOU? The only problem with that way of living life is that it is G-dless. In the preservation of the “I” and in our mania to foster it, everything and everyone becomes a casualty. That same article posited that even apologizing for bumping into someone is one sorry too many. However, that entire philosophy most certainly steps on G-d’s “foot,” which leads to this week’s Parasha, Vayikra and many reasons to be sorry. 

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Without having to ask “Can you hear Me now?” for the third time in the Torah it is written that G-d “called” Moses. Once again it was to assume a momentous duty. So important is this new duty that the entire book of Leviticus is titled Vayikra, which means, “He called.” Leviticus opens with G-d instructing Moses how the Israelites should “say sorry” through sacrificial service to atone for their sins. They were to atone not only for sins against G-d, but for sins against each other. They were to atone not only for sins they did, but also for their sinful thoughts. They were to atone not only for clear violations of the commandments, but for sins they were not certain they even violated. They were to atone not only for sins they did on purpose, but for ones they committed accidentally. Why? Because G-d takes “sorry” very seriously. Yes,  Moses got the “call,” but who’s sorry now?

The sages teach that thought, speech and action are garments of the soul. We need to clean those garments when they become sullied by sin. The sacrifices provided the remedy to purify those “garments.” And let’s not keep this so sterile. The act of sacrificing involves slaughtering a living animal, cutting it into pieces and sprinkling blood, etc.; It’s gory even if it is for a holy end. But be sure that those who brought sacrifices were cognizant of one thing: that the animal before them was dying in their stead. Since it is the animal soul of man that causes him to sin, “atonement comes about only through blood” (Zevachim 26b).

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But there is one thing that even sacrifices cannot do for us and that is to say sorry to one we have wronged, hurt, lied to or from whom we’ve stolen (which includes stealing time, reputation, manipulating, etc.) Until we make good, G-d won’t forgive us. Even our fasting on Yom Kippur absolves only our sins toward G-d not those perpetrated against others. When we try and preserve the “I” our ego makes no room for G-d, for goodness, for apologies or forgiveness. And luxuriating in our own imagined greatness will bring us to sin. The word for “I” in Hebrew is “ani”;  when the same letters are rearranged they spell the Hebrew word “ayin" which means nothingness. Moses was the most humble person in history because he rearranged the letters, perceived his nothingness and in a profound unfathomable way he lived beyond the “I.”  That made him the worthy recipient and teacher of G-d’s Torah.

In this generation of selfies and excessive self-love, the challenge for us all is ever harder. The “I” has been exponentially fortified, digitized, glamorized and monetized, but scantily spiritualized. Unfortunately, the third Temple has yet to be rebuilt and we can’t throw some poor sheep on the fire to atone for us. But saying sorry to G-d, to our neighbors and to ourselves is still possible. If G-d loved Moses for being the most humble man on earth then we can deduce, even though we are no Sherlock Holmes, that G-d must hate the arrogant and prideful. And indeed it is written in the Talmud that where the arrogant reside, G-d cannot dwell.

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Forget about all the self-help books which expire like old medicine and the gurus promising to make you the best YOU; G-d’s eternal book will make you the best JEW and therein you’ll find the best you. In that destined role you will truly find who you are. Just as physical light influences plants to grow, spiritual and intellectual light i.e., the Torah, prods man to achieve his potential. So, yes, be sorry. Be very very sorry if tomorrow you are not a better person and better Jew than you were today. Most of the pain in our lives is because we don’t know how to say sorry or how to forgive. And if you think saying sorry to G-d or to your neighbor or friend, to  your brother or sister, makes you “small,” then I’m very sorry to tell you, you weren’t all that much to begin with.   Shabbat Shalom! 

On Your Mark, Get Set--And Then What?

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The evil inclination woke up early that morning and started producing legitimate and convincing reasons of why I should not write a blog on the week’s Torah reading.  Sometimes I wonder who is more creative, Aliza the Writer, or the evil inclination with his great rationalizations of why I should procrastinate or ignore my service to G-d. After all, I’ve already written a blog every week on the Torah readings! What is the big deal if I just skip just this one, the very last one in the Book of Exodus? 

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But then I asked myself, “What if G-d had never finished the Book of Exodus?” When we started reading it a few months ago, the Jews had just become slaves in Egypt and suffered greatly under their cruel oppressors. The End!

No, thank goodness it didn’t end there. The Israelites’ cries reached up to Heaven and their story was just set to begin. And indeed, this week’s parasha truly is a grand finale to the second book of Moses and worth waiting for as the Israelites were now a free people, ready to worship their Gracious G-d in a Divinely designed Tabernacle.

For the past several weeks we read about the construction of the Tabernacle. Now that it was completed, Moses blessed the nation.  Indeed, blessings are most potent in things that are completed and whole, not merely started. Imagine a pilot who makes a great take-off but forgets to land! 

Interesting to note in Hebrew the word Shalom, which means peace and is also one of G-d's names, also contains the word shalem, which means complete — implying that where there is peace and completion G-d can reside.  

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How many things in our lives do we begin but never complete? Most of the things which we start, other than chocolate cookies, remain unfinished: diets, workout regimens, language courses, our vows to be better Jews and better people, etc. One of the main reasons that this happens is because we allow our evil inclination to take the helm. He caters to our weakness: “Just stay in bed and sleep more, you work hard”; “Just eat it, you’ll start your diet tomorrow”; “Don’t go to synagogue or give charity, you’re nice enough as you are….”  The evil inclination succeeds when you fail. 

The threat of Amalek, the nation perpetually set to destroy the Jews through the generations, is not only a physical enemy but an inner enemy as well. It attempts to cool our religious fervor, our spiritual aspirations, and our yearning for self-improvement. Thus, it is our job seven days a week to give ourselves an extra push and not be lazy or distracted and thus to snatch victory from the insatiable demonic jaws salivating in anticipation of our defeat. We have to stop starting and start finishing what we already started.

Indeed, when we take on a new mitzvah, we must complete it. Although it was Moses who found Joseph’s bones and took them out of Egypt, it was the Israelites who got credit for doing so because they were the ones who buried Joseph’s bones when they arrived in the Promised Land.

In addition, we should not rely on the laurels of the past. Even if we did good yesterday, it can’t sustain us forever. Moses had to disassemble and reconstruct the Tabernacle every single day. Each one of us is like a Tabernacle. It is only through the continual building and deconstructing of ourselves that we become aware of the components that make us who we are. Every time Moses went through the process of erecting and dismantling the Mishkan, he invested us with the strength to rebuild ourselves: to learn from our failures and to reinvent ourselves in better spiritual formation. 

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Laziness and procrastination must be the first casualties in our efforts to live a healthy, purposeful and holy life. We must never be afraid to start, even if we fear we can’t complete the task. As Rabbi Tarfon said in Pirkei Avos (2:16): “It is not your obligation  to finish the task,  but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.”

Dash the excuses that begin with, "Just this once I won't," and "Just this once I can't." We must never give up nor allow the last comment on our lives to be stamped with the word: “Incomplete!”  We would never tolerate a book where each chapter had great opening paragraphs but the author decided not continue the story line. So why, my friends, would we accept that to be the story of our lives? Shabbat Shalom!