“RABBI’S MUSINGS
(& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh
Parshas Ki Setzei – Pirkei Avos, perakim 1-2
13 Elul 5772/September
1, 2012
One
evening last week, shortly before we returned home from camp, I had
to travel into Brooklyn to be menachem avel a fellow camp administration
member. The trip is normally about an hour and forty five minutes from
East Stroudsburg, PA, in the Poconos to Brooklyn. I took along with
me a car full of people including someone who reassured me that he knew
the directions. To be safe, I also plugged the address into the GPS,
and we set off with confidence. When my navigator in the front seat
dozed off somewhere down Route 80 I turned my attention towards the
GPS.
Of
course, all of you brilliant readers are shaking your heads. But how
was I to know that the GPS was not taking me to Brooklyn via Staten
Island, but through Manhattan? It seems that as far as mileage goes,
Manhattan is the shortest route. No one told the woman inside the GPS
that one must avoid Manhattan at all costs in the late afternoon.
So
we got off the 80 and wound around some streets in scenic Jersey City
where the natives looked as happy to see us as we did to see them. Before
I knew it we were sitting in abysmal traffic waiting to get into the
Holland Tunnel. The way we were moving I think we could have walked
to Holland in less time. By then my navigator woke up and realized what
occurred, but by then we were resigned to our fate.
Dr.
Stephen Covey, in his acclaimed New York Times best-selling book, The
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People writes (habit 2), “To begin
with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your
destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better
understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always
in the right direction…It is possible to be busy – very busy- without
being very effective…the carpenter’s rule is, ‘measure twice,
cut once’.”
The
road toward spiritual growth is not easily traversed. There are many
bumps along the curvy and lengthy route, and traveling is arduous at
best. But there are directions that have been pre-posted for us by our
sages which instruct us of the best way to get to our destination. But
we often think we are smarter and wittier and can figure out quicker
ways to get there without all the fuss and struggle. We think we can
tunnel our way to spiritual greatness.
But
in the end we aren’t wiser than Chazal, and, au contraire. There is
a price to pay for every attempted shortcut. More often than not, the
shortest route is not the fastest route.
That’s
part of the reason why we have a full month of Elul to prepare for the
yimei hadin. If we want to take advantage of the opportunity being
afforded to us to renew our lives and our priorities and direction,
we need to chart our course carefully and calculatedly.
By
the grace of Hashem we eventually made it to Brooklyn, despite hitting
more traffic at the Battery Tunnel (and then at the BQE, and Prospect,
and at every corner in Boro Park. Boy, do I love Brooklyn!). The good
thing for us in Elul is that our spiritual destination is a much greater
and blissful destination than Brooklyn.
Shabbat
Shalom & Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani and
Chani Staum
720
Union Road
• New Hempstead, NY 10977 • (845) 362-2425