Dear Friend,
Safety is always our number one priority, whatever the activity, we are always making sure that it is safe before we engage. If we feel something is unsafe our instinct and sense of self-preservation will prevent us from engaging.
The Torah tells us about putting up a fence around a flat roof to prevent someone from falling, which is a general lesson in life to be aware of any situation which may have risk and mitigate that risk to prevent injury or worse.
We are good about noticing immediate risk, things that may be dangerous in the moment.
However, long-term risks are harder to notice, as they require not just an awareness but also the will to look ahead and see what’s coming, perhaps many years down the road.
It’s easy to see the risk on a flat roof and the need for a fence, it’s much harder to observe a behavior or a habit that seems to pose no risk in the short term.
The metaphor of a fence is used to intimate the restriction and limit that a fence creates and although a fence places limits, these are limits which are obviously needed to keep safe.
Similarly in our behavior and interaction with others. We like to live free, but a wise person will understand the importance of limits and borders which will keep them from falling in the short term and especially in the long term.
Good Shabbos!
Sincerely,
Rabbi Mendel & Elke Zaltzman
Shabbos Times
Friday, September 9
Candle Lighting: 6:58pm Evening service: 7:00pm
Saturday, September 10 Morning service: 10:00am
Kiddush Brunch: 12:00pm Evening service: 7:00pm
Shabbos ends: 7:55pm
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Three Jewish mothers are sitting on a bench, arguing over which one’s son loves her the most. The first one says, “You know, my son sends me flowers every Shabbos.”
“You call that love?” says the second mother. “My son calls me every day!”
“That’s nothing,” says the third woman. “My son is in therapy five days a week. And the whole time, he talks about me!”
WEEKLY eTORAH
There is an old joke illustrating the difference between a believer and an atheist:
The believer wakes up, looks up to heaven, and with heartfelt devotion and true gratitude exclaims, “Good morning, G‑d!”
The atheist, by contrast, rolls over one last time, yawns and stretches, strolls over to the window, looks outside and declares, “My G‑d, what a morning!”
Believers know that our every waking moment is a gift from G‑d. They treasure the moments that He has planned for them, and express their gratitude with pride. Those with less faith take their moments as they come, and judge the quality of a day by the amount of pleasure they manage to wring out of it.
The first prayer a Jewish child is taught to recite every morning is the “Modeh Ani”:
“I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.”
We acknowledge our Creator and thank Him for the gift of a new day. By starting off the day full of humility and gratitude, we pledge to live up to G‑d’s vision for the world.
But, I ask you: once you’ve rolled off the bed and rubbed the sleep from your eyes, how much of the Modeh Ani do you take with you? So you spent eight seconds admitting that you owe your life to G‑d. Does that really affect the rest of the day?
The Torah advises us to “fulfill the utterances of our lips.” Ostensibly an injunction to pay up our pledges to charity and to live up to our vows, the verse can be homiletically rendered as a directive to listen and learn from the words said while praying. It is too easy to just go through the motions, letting the familiar words roll off the tongue and into oblivion; however, G‑d wants prayer to be more than mere lip service.
The words we say must mean something. Prayer is a unique opportunity to communicate with the divine. When we train our children to say the Modeh Ani first thing after rising, it is in the hope that the feelings and emotions encapsulated in the prayer will permeate the days of their life.
G‑d demands that we fulfill our pledges and live up to our promises. Each morning we acknowledge our Creator as King, and thank Him for gifting us with our soul again. We approach the rest of the day with the enthusiasm and knowledge that we are following the route suggested in G‑d’s guidebook. We will fulfill the oaths we made to Him, and live by our promises, for now and forever.
