Who am I? What am I? This parshah is replete with miniature paragraphs on what to do when you find yourself in different life situations. How to treat a wife, how to treat a woman that you find amongst your enemies during war, how to be merciful with a bird, how to be merciful to a child even if you have to have him stoned.
The lessons of how to be a mentsch. We have to be a mentsch because G-d lives among us, and He is holy and therefore we must be holy.
I was stopped on the street by a reader of thefivetowns.com, who is also a rebbetzin in the community. She said “Suri, my child does not know how to sign her name, and when I took her for her driver’s permit she didn’t know what to do, and it is the same for her friends, and when I spoke with the people at DMV they echoed what my daughter said, that the kids coming in for driver’s permits do not know how to sign their name.”
We facebook and Instagram and linkedin and we are the star of our show, and portray who we are and what we are about as movie stars in our own films. Handwriting experts can decipher a persons character by his handwriting. Even though handwriting was taught as a subject in school until fairly recently, each persons curve and letter size identified who he/she was. Maybe they cant sign their name, because the teachers prefer typed papers, but maybe they would then have to look within themselves to determine who they are really, on the inside. Maybe they don’t want to sign their name because they don’t want to divulge their insides. Do I have confidence, do I not have self esteem, will I be revealing too much by my signature that would conflict with my star image?
Just this week, two friends revealed to me the concept of a vision board, and they shared their vision boards with me. A vision board is your own facebook page for yourself, not for public view. It’s how you see yourself and envision what your goals are, what your target aspirations are, where you see yourself in the future.
It’s one thing to whisper to yourself what your dreams about yourself are, it is another whole thing to take that internal whisper, and make yourself a concrete vision of who you are, where you’re going, what your goals are, and the visual of where you want to be.
I am working on mine now…i am daring to concretize my thoughts, wishes, dreams and whispers. I did not even know or dare to know or dare to dream or understand what was lurking as my desires for myself in the crevices of my mind. But I am now daring to exhume these dreams from my mind, and it is bringing a certain peace with it.
DARE I DREAM? DO I HAVE THE GUMPTION TO MAKE THESE DREAMS COME TRUE? I HAVE HIGH HOPES.
But how do I make it happen, where is the manual? The Torah and specifically this parshah. It sets forth what is important that G-d convey to man about how to be a mentsch; mentsch trumps all. Being kind to people, being fair to them, that helps in all facets of life. If you have to concern yourself with the feelings of a bird, then how much more so for your fellow man.
Youngsters are so very busy putting on their show that they do not even know what they are composed of on the inside. They reveal what they want you to see, but have not determined who they are themselves, what their signatures are, what they want to sign their names, a piece of art, creative writing, an article, a photograph. They are so busy embellishing todays blog, that they don’t ask themselves who they are, what makes them unique, how they can contribute to the world.
To young and old I say: Dare to dream. Envision your goals. Don’t sit back and think they will happen on your own. Every day envision them and determine how you will work towards your goals today, and then do it.
But be a mentsch and aspire higher.
Good Shabbos.
-Suri