challenged again!
so i've been challenged again, this time to blog a short two days after i blogged last and as usual i cannot turn down a challenge so here i am and this morning i was thinking about what i was gonna write about? and then i realized that the challenge itself is a good topic to write about..
i was recently talking (yea i know it seems like im always talking..probably cuz i am) to a friend about drive, and whether i had it or not, what it is that drives us and what it is that indicates that we have drive. i was saying that i had no drive any more cuz i dont really care about my grades as much as i used to etc..but then she pointed out that i stay up all night studying indicating that i did have drive..whatver..i like to arguue and u continued to argue for arguments sake but this morning as i was thinking about what to do it occured to me that the fact that i took the challenge ment that i did..now im not here to talk abt myself..rather using myself as an example to see what is it that drives me, drives you?
what is it that makes me succesful? what is it that makes me a failure? society tells us that in order to be succesful we must finish the race first, we must be the top of the class, make the most money, have the nicest house and hopefully we have not fully bought into this school of thought..but still its there in our minds to a certain degree. Rabbi Brown always said that our first hashkafa is edom BH our second is Torah, and if were strong enuf then the second thought overcomes the first but unfortately that is not always the case. and when our parents ask us to do something our first thought is" ugh im annoyed i dont wanna!' but then (hopefully) the torah thought kicks in and we do it cuz of Kibud Av'vaim..so though we've moved beyond this school of thought of what is succesful has crept into out look at judaism and spirituality
this is the time of year when we become free, free from the masters that control our lives,t he masters that are not Hashem, its a time to take the plunge! R'Pincus says that one of the dfiffernce btwn goyim and klal Yisrael is that we have the koach of Teshuva, yes they have the ability to make restitution and fix what it is that that have doen wrong, but its not the same as teshuva. teshuva is instantanious! it can happen over night. we were at teh 49th level of teumah and teh nxt day all of klal yisrael waas experiencing nevuah and ruach hakodesh. the classic case of goyim doing teshuva was with ninvey. but their teshuva happened over a course of a period if time and was done totally out of yirah which is on a different level then one done from ahava...anyways getting back on track..
we are doing this crazy teshuva, throwing off the shackles of society during pesach, the shackles taht we put on ourselves during the course of the year..and at our table it was suggested at the point in the haggada where it says that we shud feel as if we are coming out of mitzrayim ourselves to take upon ourselves one thing that we are going to f ree ourselves from. to take on the challenge of being free is a difficult thing, its a brave act. being a slave is much easier, its passive, having ur life dictated to you saves u from having to think, having to make actual decisions,. but as bochrim (not bochurim) as choosers we choose to be free! and this is a full time job and it requires us to constantly be on our toes. we can never fall asleep on the job. and when we take on this task its a challenge taht we cannot take lightly and something that we have to be aware taht as teh chosen peeps its something that we are priveladged to be free!
and now to bring it all together cuz this has not been exactly a flowing blog..as we take on this challenge we shud remember that this itself is a victory! we have to understand that its taking the initial plunge, making that deciusion to be more than mediocre that makes us victorious. sometimes we may not behave as the free people we wish to be but we cannot allow this to discourage us. we have to rememnber that we are not failures just cuz we dont win everytime. the higher we go the more the danger of falling is, but falling is an indication taht we rose initially.someone who is sitting on the floor will never fall..cuz he never got off the floor! so take the challnge this year to free urself of one thing, anything and remember that the fact that u took the challenge makes u the victor! u have made the decision to be a better free person!
so strive!
i was recently talking (yea i know it seems like im always talking..probably cuz i am) to a friend about drive, and whether i had it or not, what it is that drives us and what it is that indicates that we have drive. i was saying that i had no drive any more cuz i dont really care about my grades as much as i used to etc..but then she pointed out that i stay up all night studying indicating that i did have drive..whatver..i like to arguue and u continued to argue for arguments sake but this morning as i was thinking about what to do it occured to me that the fact that i took the challenge ment that i did..now im not here to talk abt myself..rather using myself as an example to see what is it that drives me, drives you?
what is it that makes me succesful? what is it that makes me a failure? society tells us that in order to be succesful we must finish the race first, we must be the top of the class, make the most money, have the nicest house and hopefully we have not fully bought into this school of thought..but still its there in our minds to a certain degree. Rabbi Brown always said that our first hashkafa is edom BH our second is Torah, and if were strong enuf then the second thought overcomes the first but unfortately that is not always the case. and when our parents ask us to do something our first thought is" ugh im annoyed i dont wanna!' but then (hopefully) the torah thought kicks in and we do it cuz of Kibud Av'vaim..so though we've moved beyond this school of thought of what is succesful has crept into out look at judaism and spirituality
this is the time of year when we become free, free from the masters that control our lives,t he masters that are not Hashem, its a time to take the plunge! R'Pincus says that one of the dfiffernce btwn goyim and klal Yisrael is that we have the koach of Teshuva, yes they have the ability to make restitution and fix what it is that that have doen wrong, but its not the same as teshuva. teshuva is instantanious! it can happen over night. we were at teh 49th level of teumah and teh nxt day all of klal yisrael waas experiencing nevuah and ruach hakodesh. the classic case of goyim doing teshuva was with ninvey. but their teshuva happened over a course of a period if time and was done totally out of yirah which is on a different level then one done from ahava...anyways getting back on track..
we are doing this crazy teshuva, throwing off the shackles of society during pesach, the shackles taht we put on ourselves during the course of the year..and at our table it was suggested at the point in the haggada where it says that we shud feel as if we are coming out of mitzrayim ourselves to take upon ourselves one thing that we are going to f ree ourselves from. to take on the challenge of being free is a difficult thing, its a brave act. being a slave is much easier, its passive, having ur life dictated to you saves u from having to think, having to make actual decisions,. but as bochrim (not bochurim) as choosers we choose to be free! and this is a full time job and it requires us to constantly be on our toes. we can never fall asleep on the job. and when we take on this task its a challenge taht we cannot take lightly and something that we have to be aware taht as teh chosen peeps its something that we are priveladged to be free!
and now to bring it all together cuz this has not been exactly a flowing blog..as we take on this challenge we shud remember that this itself is a victory! we have to understand that its taking the initial plunge, making that deciusion to be more than mediocre that makes us victorious. sometimes we may not behave as the free people we wish to be but we cannot allow this to discourage us. we have to rememnber that we are not failures just cuz we dont win everytime. the higher we go the more the danger of falling is, but falling is an indication taht we rose initially.someone who is sitting on the floor will never fall..cuz he never got off the floor! so take the challnge this year to free urself of one thing, anything and remember that the fact that u took the challenge makes u the victor! u have made the decision to be a better free person!
so strive!
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