Dirtier to Get Cleaner

"If you want to catch beasts you don't see every day,
You have to go places quite out of the way,
You have to go places no others can get to.
You have to get cold and you have too get wet, too."
— Dr. Seuss

I think this is very applicable now in the days of Elul.

If we want to fight the Yetzer Hara you have to go look in places that are not comfortable. It gonna take us into the deepest and darkest part of us. Places that we have locked up eons ago..determined to forget. But they don't go away. They just stew. They simmer and eventually it may boil over.

This is a fight that we have to do. No one can do it for you. We can ask for advice, but no one is going to go into your deep, dank and dark cellar and fight the fight for you.

Its not comfortable. Its not easy. There is a reason that we have stored it away for so long. There is a reason that it has been under lock and key for years on end.

We have to get cold and wet. There may be tears. We may need to get our hands dirty and deal with our skeletons. Once we do that. Then we can emerge from the depths cleaner, brighter, lighter.

"Today is your day, your mountain is waiting. So get on your way."
— Dr. Seuss

Comments

  1. DevorahSeptember 18, 2011 at 3:28 PM

    That's a great message! You are so right. It's hard to dig deep into places we'd rather not go but if we do we will come out clean. That's what this time is all about...thank you for this.

    PS I like the new look of your blog :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. aminspirationSeptember 18, 2011 at 3:30 PM

    thanks!
    it was time for change

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

you know what to do....

Popular posts from this blog

My plane broke!

Man alive do i have a story for you! So i was supposed to go to isreal wednesday, i was flying direct and i was all excited that i was gonna have a normal flight. i had no problems with security i get on the plane i sit in my seat, get my book out. everyone is filing in. they do the whole security thing, turn off the lights we all settle in, i even turn off my beloved ipod. all of sudden they turn the lights back on, and they aer telling us that the plane is BROKEN! and that they haev to do sheet metal repair. so they give us an option to get off the plane and go through security again or we can stay on the plane and in an hour the well just move us to the next plain. now with my previous experience do yoiu thinki i believd them? uhuhuhuh! so i get off settle down with my book and get comfirtable . i call my parets to tell them what teh story was. so my father tell me to ask if i can change my flight to sun night cuz we had a seuda last night at my house and i was gonna miss it. so i c...
Read more

To Study or Not to Study?

I love Friday. I love the feeling that Shabbat is coming. Shabbos is a day like no other.. and that means that erev Shabbat is by association just as special. About a year and a half a go...maybe longer...I started buying flowers " lekavod shabbat kodesh!"  In seminary, Rabbi Geisler told us something that really stuck with me. He said that he does not buy his wife flowers on Friday. He and his wife go and buy flowers for Shabbat together. Rav Shimshon Pincus, in his sefer on Shabbat, also talks about flowers. He says that he went to the store to buy flowers for Shabbat. He went to the roses. Only the best for Shabbat. Only the best for the Queen. But he couldn't decide how many to get. A dozen. two dozen..there is no value for Shabbat. Maybe he should just buy them all? In the end he bought three roses; one for each of the avot, which in turn correspond to the three meals of Shabbat. The greatness of Shabbat is often ignored, trampled on. R'Pincus explains tha...
Read more