“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh – Rosh Hashanah 5781
29 Elul 5780/September 17, 2020
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OF MASKS AND MEN
Teaching
is never easy. It requires time, patience, technique, and a lot of caring. Then
there’s also preparation, marking, parental feedback and dealing with issues
that arise. Teaching with a mask is that much harder. Aside for the discomfort
of wearing a mask and the challenge of projecting your voice, it’s immeasurably
harder to teach when students cannot see the teacher’s mouth and facial
expressions. The same is true regarding the teacher’s inability to see their
student’s facial expressions. It also makes it much harder to hear what They
are saying. We don’t realize how much we read lips in daily conversations.
(There’s
also the added challenge of having to smell your own breath…)
The
truth is that we spend most of our days wearing masks. Every time we step
outside of the privacy of our own home, we don masks which shields others from
seeing the real us.
Social
media and on-line presence is even more masked. No one portrays their real
lives on social media; they only portray what they would like everyone to see.
As a result, social media breeds jealousy, anxiety, and depression. We look at
other people’s posts and wonder why their lives seems so blissful and wonderful
while we feel like we can barely keep our heads above water. Little do we realize
that the other person may very well be thinking the same thing about us and our
lives based on our social media posts.
Rarely
do we have the courage to remove our masks and present ourselves to the world
as we really are. We are too afraid to be real and vulnerable. We wonder – what
if people don’t like the real me? So, we maintain fake veneers, which only
serve to make us feel worse about ourselves and our deficiencies.
Part of
the refreshing beauty of the weeks of Elul and the days leading up to Yom
Kippur is that during this time we make a supreme effort to peel off our masks,
in order to analyze the real essence of who we are.
Halacha
states that one must immerse in a mikvah before Yom Kippur.
In a
sense, the mikvah symbolizes the spiritual drama of death and rebirth. When one
submerges himself in its natural water, he enters an environment in which he
cannot breathe and live for more than a few moments. It symbolizes the death of
all that has gone on before. As he emerges from the gagging waters into the clear
air, he begins life anew.
The
mikvah also symbolizes a spiritual womb. A human fetus is surrounded by water.
At the time of its birth, the water “breaks” and the child emerges into a new
world.
When one
emerges from the mikvah, he should view himself as if beginning life anew. The
question is what will he do now? Will he return to the prior life he was
living? Will he again don the masks he had been wearing? Or, will he seek to
maintain his newfound purity by being true and genuine to himself?
The
pandemic has also addressed the question of what is considered essential?
Businesses that were deemed essential were allowed to reopen while those not
essential had to remain shut. This led to justifiable aggravation and outrage
as people watched their businesses be destroyed, feeling that their business
was no less “essential” than others that had been allowed to open.
The
pandemic forced us to rethink what is essential in our lives. There were many
things we didn’t think we could live without and we found out otherwise. (Is it
really possible to make Pesach without a cleaning lady?)
We must
constantly remind ourselves that we are all essential! If we are here it’s
because G-d wants us to be here to fulfill a specific mission and purpose. It’s
been said that G-d has no grandchildren. We may disappoint Him but no matter
what, we are always His children (Kiddushin 36a).
We hope
that 5781 will be a year of blessing and goodness. We hope it will be a year of
health and well-being, of peace and prosperity, a year when suffering and pain,
plague and struggle end.
For us
personally, we hope it will be a year when we are able to confidently remove
our masks – literally and figuratively, a year when we learn to love ourselves
for who we are, a year of rebirth, and one in which we recognize how essential
we are in G-d’s world.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Shana Tova & Gut g’bnetcht yahr
Kesiva Vachasima Tova,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum