Coping With Our Limitations

Soon it will be that time of the year, when many of us will be taking some time off by going on a spring break. It’s the perfect time to put away the winter clothes, boots, and umbrellas, and get ready to welcome the blooming flowers. 

One of my favorite things to do on spring break is to take my children bowling. There is an arcade area in our local bowling alley, and after we finish a game of bowling, my children each get some tokens to spend on whichever game they choose. 

Realizing your limits

For me, it’s always fascinating to watch the children choose how they spend their tokens. Which game attracts which child? This way I am able to learn something new about each one’s personality. 

One of my children, when she was younger, would always spend all her tokens on the electronic grab — a prize game. You know the one where a fancy prize is glimmering and looks so easy to attain by manoeuvring the joystick.

You are certain that with a bit of skill, in a few seconds that expensive toy will be yours for just one token. We would suggest that it’s not as easy as it looks and perhaps it would be better to consider other games. However, the attraction to the expensive prize was too much to resist. 

Then one year she took the tokens, walked up to her favorite game, admired the fancy prize and said “It’s beautiful and I really want you, but you’re not for me”. 

A loss in our community

This week, the Torah world lost its top ranking General, Rav Chaim Kaminetzky zt”l. There were so many people that came to show their respects, that the government had to close down a major highway and turn it into a parking lot for public transportation. 

One must take a few minutes to ponder the situation. A man that never held a proper job, never ran for office, wasn’t a world-famous entertainer, was being greeted by over half a million people who were physically present and hundreds of thousands more via satellite. 

This week’s Parsha

The answer in my opinion is in this week’s Parsha. The Parsha starts off discussing the infinitely spiritually lofty services of the Holy Temple and ends up with describing what type of creepy crawly insects and animals are permissible to eat and which ones are not permissible.

Which foods we can elevate the holy sparks trapped inside of them and which ones we cannot. Which foods will have a positive impact on our character and which ones will have the opposite effect. 

Chassidus explains that both concepts are in the same Parsha for us to understand.  That from the Divine’s position there is absolutely no difference in service to him. He appreciates the service of the Jew who is fighting off the most disgusting temptations just as much as the one who is serving Him, the Holy of Holies. 

Rav Chaim not only knew the entire Torah and reviewed it annually. He greeted each and every Jew with the same warm smile. There was no one too small in his eyes to help and there was no subject too complicated for him to understand. 

Choices will define you

When such a person lives amongst us we have the ability to trust in his clarity of vision and guiding light for us to make the right decisions in life. 
Many times in life situations sometimes present themselves as no-brainers. The enthusiasm of the moment and the drive to grab a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity blind us from seeing the other realities. 

A person who lives his life by making sure to present all major choices and decisions to people like Rav Chaim, lives a life without any second-guessing and regrets. They might not always get the answers they were hoping for however, many times they have the pleasure of looking back and seeing just how lucky they were for seeking the Tzadik’s (A person who cares for nothing but service to Hashem; he does so by helping all those he meets) advice.

Have a wonderful Shabbos.

Yitzchok Friedman