Are You a Spy or a Tourist?
9 min read
GOOD MORNING! After once again reaching a point of news and information saturation, I began to contemplate: What is the point of it all? What have I learned from all this silliness in the world?
I imagined going back in time and watching myself as a young adult. In my mind’s eye I saw myself spending time obsessing over the most meaningless things; dressing fashionably, fixated on what physical items I had or desired, and being totally consumed by who the Miami Dolphins were playing that week and replaying a continuous loop of Dan Marino’s latest heroics.
I yearned to yell at my 20-year-old self, “Why are you wasting precious time and mind space on such stupid and ultimately meaningless things?!?”
Yet perhaps it is inevitable.
A large part of life is experiential and about learning what is important. Some things simply cannot be taught in a classroom. For instance, a person discovers what’s important in life when they lose someone close to them. Likewise, a person only understands the true value of time when they are informed that their time is limited.
With the relentless algorithms of the digital age (and all its attendant nonsense) constantly threatening to crowd out everything else in our lives, we must engage in a regular regimen of emotional and intellectual hygiene and thoroughly cleanse our minds and lives of the utterly vacuous stupidities that creep into our lives.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mined many of life’s truths. In the very first story of his celebrated detective Sherlock Holmes (A Study in Scarlet, 1887), Holmes gives his friend Dr. Watson a vivid explanation of how he views the human mind. He explained that the brain is like an attic with limited space – and one must be particularly careful what to store in it. Here we are in the 21st century and not much has changed. Save the room in your mental and emotional attic for the stuff that really matters.
We find in Proverbs (9:10), “Wisdom begins with awe of the Almighty.”
This week is the start of the Hebrew month of Elul. The onset of Elul is significant as it marks the beginning of a period of spiritual preparation leading up to the high holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – the key components of the Ten Days of Repentance. Together, the month of Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance mark a 40-day period of introspection, repentance, and seeking forgiveness. As we shall soon see, this number 40 is quite significant.
During the month of Elul Jews are to engage in a practice known as “cheshbon hanefesh – an accounting of the soul.” This involves a soul-searching reflection on one’s actions and taking a hard look at the past year’s deeds. It is a time to acknowledge shortcomings and seek ways to improve oneself in the three areas of relationships: 1) our relationship with the Almighty 2) our relationship with others 3) our relationship with ourselves.
Just as corporations review their financial records to understand where they stand and prepare for a financial audit, so too Jews review their actions and seek to rectify any mistakes from the prior year. This prepares us for the “audit” of the Almighty on Rosh Hashanah – the day all of mankind is judged.
Thus, these 40 days come to represent a continual process of transformation and renewal. We focus on prior misdeeds and commit ourselves to end our self-destructive behavior and commit to spiritual growth and living a more moral existence. In many ways, these 40 days represent a rebirth of who we are and how we perceive ourselves.
Those with a basic knowledge of the Bible may recognize the number 40 as a number that represents transformation. When the world sinned to the point that God decided that it needed to be “re-formed” the Almighty brought the flood for 40 days and 40 nights and the world was reborn.
When the Jewish people didn’t trust the Almighty when He told them to enter the Land of Israel, God decreed that the entire generation would not merit entering the Land and they were relegated to the desert for the next 40 years, while that generation perished, and the nation was transformed.
There are many other examples in the Bible of the number 40 representing significant rebirth and renewal. Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai to receive the Torah from the Almighty. The prophet Jonah warns the wicked city of Nineveh that they had 40 days to repent before the Almighty destroys the entire city (this story is recounted in in its entirety in the afternoon service on Yom Kippur).
(It is, of course, no coincidence that in the Christian faith the period set aside for prayer, fasting, introspection, and seeking forgiveness known as Lent is also 40 days.)
But perhaps the most important 40 is the 40 days between the beginning of Elul and the end of Yom Kippur, which are the very same 40 days when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to plead with the Almighty to forgive the Jewish people for sinning with the Golden Calf. Moses returned to the people on the fortieth day with a second set of Ten Commandments carved in sapphire representing that God had forgiven His people. This fortieth day became Yom Kippur and forevermore the Day of Atonement.
The process of changing our lives through repentance is referred to as teshuvah. Though it is often translated as “repentance,” teshuvah actually means “to return.” Thus, repentance is the process of “returning” to the Almighty and it is the central theme of Elul. The belief is that during this time God is particularly close and merciful, making it an opportune moment to seek forgiveness and mend relationships. Jews reach out to family, friends, and colleagues, seeking reconciliation and offering apologies for past wrongs.
This reminds me of the following joke.
A man, who has only committed minor sins dies and God decides that while he is worthy of heaven he must still do several tasks to repent. On the first day he is asked to wash all the dishes and cutlery from the previous evening’s feast. On the second day he is asked to make the beds in which all the righteous had slept the previous night. On the third day he is asked to wash and iron the garments worn by the heavenly angels.
While completing his ironing he suddenly muses, “Am I really repenting for my misdeeds, or did I just get married?”
This week’s Torah portion has a similarly relevant message regarding the number 40. Here we find some of the laws related to the Jewish nation engaging in warfare. It is important to know that according to our sages (see Maimonides Laws of Kings and Warfare Chapter 6) never in the history of the Jewish people did they ever engage in warfare without first giving their enemies an opportunity to make peace and avoid a war. In fact, Jewish warriors would never completely surround a city, rather they would only circle it from three sides in order to provide the inhabitants an escape route should they seek to flee.
Based on this week’s Torah portion we see that the national army had an interesting recruitment policy:
“Any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it let him go and return to his house […] Any man who has planted a vineyard, and has not yet eaten of it let him also go and return to his house […] Any man who has betrothed a wife, and has not yet married her? Let him go and return to his house […]” (Deuteronomy 20:5-7).
According to the Talmud (Sotah 2a) 40 days prior to the formation of an embryo a heavenly voice goes out and proclaims: 1) who this person will marry 2) what home this person will settle down into and 3) what fields the person will own. In other words, as part of the creation of a child three things are pre-determined: one’s spouse, one’s home, and one’s property (livelihood).
The 40 days of the embryo’s evolvement into a living being are all part of that process of who this person will eventually become. Because these three elements are so intrinsic to a person’s self-definition, any warrior who had begun the process but not yet completed any one of these three elements was excused from serving in the army.
The famous Biblical commentator known as Rashi explains (ad loc) that a person who contemplates the possible inability to complete these three elemental aspects of who he is, undergoes a “torment of the soul.” It is for this reason that he is excused serving.
A person cannot control many aspects of life; parentage, innate abilities and challenges, how much time one has, etc. But it is what we do with the circumstances of our lives that counts: Did we maximize our potential? Did we develop and refine our character? Have we become the kind of person that the people who are supposed to love us actually do love us?
As Carl Jung once wrote, “I am not what happened to me. I am who I choose to become.” This is what the month of Elul is all about.
Topics in this week’s portion include: Judges and Justice, “Sacred Trees and Pillars,” Blemished Sacrifice, Penalties for Idolatry, The Supreme Court, The King, Levitical Priests, Priestly Portions, Special Service, Divination and Prophecy, Cities of Refuge, Murder, Preserving Boundaries, Conspiring Witnesses, Preparing for War, Taking Captives, Conducting a Siege, and the Case of the Unsolved Murder.
The Crawl Daddy fishing edition 🙂
Wayne Lesher
