Parshas Nitzavim-Vayelech -- 25 Elul, 5773 / August 31, 2013 -- Vol. 4, Issue 8
You may not know it, but you are living in a super time. I was in the car with a colleague of mine recently and he stopped off to pick up a snack. Once at the drive through, the server asked him, "did you want to supersize that?" Just last week, I was at 7-11 getting a slurpee with my kids and I overheard a gentleman order a hot dog and a large Coke. The man behind the counter asked him, "did you want the super double big gulp?"
Then I was at the local supermarket and there was a sale on cereal. Buy two boxes of Cheerios and get a Super Family Sized box for half price. The last time I was at the mechanic for an oil change I had the option of the "super deluxe package" which included not only an oil change but a slew of other bells and whistles I couldn't appreciate and would never know the difference if I got it or not.
And so we are living in a world where the norm is no longer enough; we need super. The question is in which areas is super really necessary? What if instead of supersizing physical and material things, we supersized more important things in life? What if we supersized our faith, supersized our spiritual endeavours, supersized our commitment to our families, and even supersized our kind acts and interactions with others? Can you imagine what the world might be like. Someone would ask you to help them jump start their car and you would say, "Sure I can help you. Did you want that help supersized? Not only can I help you get started I can stick around to make sure you are well on your way!"
In this week's Torah portion, Nitzavim-Vayelech, all of the Jewish people are gathered together before Moshe. The water carriers, young people, men and women, elders, everyone. Why? Because the unity of the Jewish people is imperative. Above everything else, not only do we need to stand before Hashem, we need to do it together, in unity. As the last Shabbos before the new year, don't just have a regular Shabbos; supersize your Shabbos. Soak in the spirituality and unique blessing that Shabbos brings and ready yourself for a supersized year!
Then I was at the local supermarket and there was a sale on cereal. Buy two boxes of Cheerios and get a Super Family Sized box for half price. The last time I was at the mechanic for an oil change I had the option of the "super deluxe package" which included not only an oil change but a slew of other bells and whistles I couldn't appreciate and would never know the difference if I got it or not.
And so we are living in a world where the norm is no longer enough; we need super. The question is in which areas is super really necessary? What if instead of supersizing physical and material things, we supersized more important things in life? What if we supersized our faith, supersized our spiritual endeavours, supersized our commitment to our families, and even supersized our kind acts and interactions with others? Can you imagine what the world might be like. Someone would ask you to help them jump start their car and you would say, "Sure I can help you. Did you want that help supersized? Not only can I help you get started I can stick around to make sure you are well on your way!"
In this week's Torah portion, Nitzavim-Vayelech, all of the Jewish people are gathered together before Moshe. The water carriers, young people, men and women, elders, everyone. Why? Because the unity of the Jewish people is imperative. Above everything else, not only do we need to stand before Hashem, we need to do it together, in unity. As the last Shabbos before the new year, don't just have a regular Shabbos; supersize your Shabbos. Soak in the spirituality and unique blessing that Shabbos brings and ready yourself for a supersized year!
Home Improvements or Self Improvements (Parshas Nitzavim-Vayelech)
I have very exciting news to share; we recently purchased our first house, and as of July 30th we officially took ownership of it. It has been a whirlwind of activity for the past few weeks, analyzing our finances, examining mortgage rates, hiring inspectors, negotiating price, and finally receiving the keys to our humble abode. After all that hard (and somewhat tedious) work, we were ready to move in as soon as possible; however we also knew that there were several items that we wanted done before we moved all of our furniture and other belongings into the house. Painting and replacing the flooring would certainly be easier without worrying about spills and splotches on furniture or scratches on walls.
Being that we have been living with white walls for the last eight years we took some time to decide on the colour scheme of our house; wanting to make our home bright and cheerful yet calming and elegant. We decided that each room would have its own specific ambiance created by the selection of the perfect colour. Once we picked out the colours, we thought we were ready to begin. However, before the painting stage, something had to be done with the existing holes in the walls where the previous owner hung paintings and fixtures. We couldn't just cover the holes with fresh paint, rather we needed to patch and fill all holes and crevices eliminating them from existence.
Now, it is true that I'm not a handy man par excellence, but I’m also not afraid to get my hands dirty. And so, I was off to Home Depot to speak with Cliff (my favourite consultant) and find out exactly what supplies I needed, and what would be the most effective method of spackling. Half an hour later, armed with the quickest drying putty in the west, a handy dandy putty knife, and an efficient sanding block, I was a force to be reckoned with. But I began to wonder how I would know when the putty was dry. I didn't want to have to keep checking it with my finger as that would leave unsightly fingerprints on our wall and that icky sticky feeling on my hands. I was stumped.
Upon reading the directions (always a good move) I quickly discovered that the spackle I had bought had a magical quality to it. When first applied it is pink, but when fully dried it turns white! After all that hard work of patching the holes you really just want to move forward and begin painting. And why not right? I mean, you already filled the holes, what else is there to do? Well, you could begin painting, however, there are several issues with this. For one, the paint won't go on the wall evenly and you will be able to see the bumps and ridges from the spackle. Also, if the walls aren't flat and clean the paint won't bond to the wall; thus you will encounter flaking and peeling (not a pretty sight). So we spent several hours sanding and cleaning the walls ensuring that they were 100% smooth and ready to be painted. The next day, the painters came, and I'm happy to say that we now have one very colourful house. The main floor is a cool and sophisticated grey, the kitchen is a cheerful orange (actually called Dreamsicle, how cool is that?), the master bedroom is a lovely rich sunset colour, the children's bedroom is a lively green, and the playroom/office/guest room is a beautiful deep peacock blue.
But what could we learn from this experience? What could the magical putty and painting teach us about our own lives? Throughout our lives we grow from the challenges we face, the decisions we encounter, and yes, from the mistakes we make. The important part of refining our character and transforming our flaws is threefold: 1) recognizing something needs to be fixed, 2) learning what needs to be done in order to fix it, and 3) taking the necessary steps to avoid making the same mistakes again. Each of us has different areas which need to be strengthened, or filled. This is akin to filling the holes with spackle. However, if we just stopped there (and painted), though we would have filled in the gaps in our lives, the remnants of our old selves could still be seen, and more likely than not our new resolutions would be short lived and would slowly but surely (like the paint) begin to flake away.
If we want the changes we make to hold fast then we have to do things in the proper order. When we make a change in our life we need to ensure that we don't move too quickly. One has to give enough time to self reflect and critically think about our action. We need to sand along our edges and make sure that we are smooth. Then when we have given the transformation the time needed to solidify, we can move on to the final stage; choosing our new colour. Because once we have filled in the gaps and smoothed out the surface, we are then ready to paint our lives anew.
The month of Elul is the perfect time to redecorate our lives. Not only because it is a special time of enhanced introspection but because momentarily the world will come to a halt as the Creator infuses new energy into the world. And what better way to enter the new year than to be painted picture perfect!
Being that we have been living with white walls for the last eight years we took some time to decide on the colour scheme of our house; wanting to make our home bright and cheerful yet calming and elegant. We decided that each room would have its own specific ambiance created by the selection of the perfect colour. Once we picked out the colours, we thought we were ready to begin. However, before the painting stage, something had to be done with the existing holes in the walls where the previous owner hung paintings and fixtures. We couldn't just cover the holes with fresh paint, rather we needed to patch and fill all holes and crevices eliminating them from existence.
Now, it is true that I'm not a handy man par excellence, but I’m also not afraid to get my hands dirty. And so, I was off to Home Depot to speak with Cliff (my favourite consultant) and find out exactly what supplies I needed, and what would be the most effective method of spackling. Half an hour later, armed with the quickest drying putty in the west, a handy dandy putty knife, and an efficient sanding block, I was a force to be reckoned with. But I began to wonder how I would know when the putty was dry. I didn't want to have to keep checking it with my finger as that would leave unsightly fingerprints on our wall and that icky sticky feeling on my hands. I was stumped.
Upon reading the directions (always a good move) I quickly discovered that the spackle I had bought had a magical quality to it. When first applied it is pink, but when fully dried it turns white! After all that hard work of patching the holes you really just want to move forward and begin painting. And why not right? I mean, you already filled the holes, what else is there to do? Well, you could begin painting, however, there are several issues with this. For one, the paint won't go on the wall evenly and you will be able to see the bumps and ridges from the spackle. Also, if the walls aren't flat and clean the paint won't bond to the wall; thus you will encounter flaking and peeling (not a pretty sight). So we spent several hours sanding and cleaning the walls ensuring that they were 100% smooth and ready to be painted. The next day, the painters came, and I'm happy to say that we now have one very colourful house. The main floor is a cool and sophisticated grey, the kitchen is a cheerful orange (actually called Dreamsicle, how cool is that?), the master bedroom is a lovely rich sunset colour, the children's bedroom is a lively green, and the playroom/office/guest room is a beautiful deep peacock blue.
But what could we learn from this experience? What could the magical putty and painting teach us about our own lives? Throughout our lives we grow from the challenges we face, the decisions we encounter, and yes, from the mistakes we make. The important part of refining our character and transforming our flaws is threefold: 1) recognizing something needs to be fixed, 2) learning what needs to be done in order to fix it, and 3) taking the necessary steps to avoid making the same mistakes again. Each of us has different areas which need to be strengthened, or filled. This is akin to filling the holes with spackle. However, if we just stopped there (and painted), though we would have filled in the gaps in our lives, the remnants of our old selves could still be seen, and more likely than not our new resolutions would be short lived and would slowly but surely (like the paint) begin to flake away.
If we want the changes we make to hold fast then we have to do things in the proper order. When we make a change in our life we need to ensure that we don't move too quickly. One has to give enough time to self reflect and critically think about our action. We need to sand along our edges and make sure that we are smooth. Then when we have given the transformation the time needed to solidify, we can move on to the final stage; choosing our new colour. Because once we have filled in the gaps and smoothed out the surface, we are then ready to paint our lives anew.
The month of Elul is the perfect time to redecorate our lives. Not only because it is a special time of enhanced introspection but because momentarily the world will come to a halt as the Creator infuses new energy into the world. And what better way to enter the new year than to be painted picture perfect!
