SHORT SHABBOS INSIGHTS: HOW TO CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE

Friday January 19, 2024 – Shevat 9, 5784?

Torah Portion Bo?

Tu B’Shevat – New Year for Trees?

Montreal Candle Lighting: 4:24 pm?

Shabbos ends: 5:32 pm?

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This is the Torah portion where we get Passover. G-d commands us to observe the anniversary of the Exodus each year by removing all leaven from their possession for seven days, eating matzah, and telling the story of their redemption to their children. ?

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There you have the mitzvahs of Passover: Sell your chometz, eat the matzah and tell the story to your kids. ?

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How those three mitzvahs became our annual spring cleaning and turning over our homes as though the second plague was coming is beyond our pay grade to explain. It is what it is. I guess Hashem knew we had to clean our houses at least once a year. ?

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Another thing we learned in this week’s Torah portion is that when something needs to get done – well, just do it. The Jews had to leave Egypt ‘now’ – they could not even wait for their bread to rise. Clearly there’s a message for us in the hastiness of their departure. ?

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One of the messages is control. ?

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Before we enter that minefield, let’s start with what we can’t control: weather, traffic, who sits next to us at an event and other people’s behavior. ?

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What can we control? Our own behavior, our decisions and what affects both of those things, our attitude. ?

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I’m a naturally negative person. I inherited that from my late father. But because I know that’s my natural inclination, I try to work hard to move the needle. Let’s be honest – it’s not easy. If the plane is delayed by 30 minutes, my mind goes to – the flight will be cancelled. And most of the time I’m wrong. The flight is just delayed 30 minutes. ?

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So how do I move my head from negative thoughts? For starters, I know I’m going to think like that so I kind of head my mind off at the pass. I don’t let myself go there and force myself to think, for example, that the delay is just that – a delay. ?

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Who I am is not going to change. What I can change is my attitude. How I look at things. That’s what the Jews did when they left Egypt. ?

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Imagine being told, that you have an hour to leave and go to a place you never saw? In fact, only 20% of the Jews left. The rest couldn’t do it. But it’s those 20% that we must emulate. They changed their attitude, albeit because they were enslaved. But aren’t we all enslaved by our own minds? ?

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G-d willing we will never be faced with leaving in the middle of the night, as many Europeans had to do during the Holocaust. And they were not as lucky as the Egyptians. Many wandered in forests and countryside, depending on the kindness, often of non-Jews to keep them alive.?

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They didn’t have the luxury we do. ?

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All of this can be applied to what is happening in Israel. If you know that watching the videos or reading first-hand accounts will render you depressed, don’t go there. Force yourself, move your head somewhere else. It’s not going to help anyone if you are depressed. ?

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Instead, go to a place in your head where you can do something. Give charity, say Tehillim, learn in the merit of the soldiers and hostages. We’re not there anyway so looking at things that make you upset won’t help. ?

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This is as much a spiritual as physical war. And in a spiritual war, you don’t have to be on the physical front line to help. The front line in a spiritual war is wherever you are. ?

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Good Shabbos?

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