By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
Yesterday I heard the following pithy aphorism.
‘We are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet’.
To be honest, I really like the quote.
There is so much truth to it.
We often deal with solving problems but neglect to deal with the root of the problem.
I am wondering how I never discovered the quote earlier.
Till it dawned on me, walking down the bustling, noisy Sukhumvit Soi 22, that Hashem sent this quote my way this week with typical Divine Providential precision.
The connection of this aphorism to the Parsha just jumps out.
Phaaroh is instructed by G-d, via Moshe, to send the Jewish people out of Egypt.
‘If you don’t send my people out, I will afflict you with…’ what turned out to be ten plagues.
Phaaroh followed what became a predictable pattern. When the plague was unbearable, he told Moshe he would let the Israelite people go.
Once the plague subsided, ‘floor was mopped’ of that particular plague, Phaaroh went back to his stubborn resistance. He didn’t solve the problem, ‘turn off the faucet’ and let the people go.
So, the next plague started.
Ten times this repeated itself.
Until finally, there was no choice, and Phaaroh had to look the problem in the face. He needed to get to the source of the issue, and ‘turn off the faucet’ and let the people go.
What a life-changing lesson there is to be learned from this.
Stop and think.
What challenges are you struggling with in your life.
What ‘floods’ are you ‘mopping up’ time after time.
What unhealthy attachment or addiction do you battle.
What problem do you solve only to meet an ensuing one.
Does it seem that the pursuit of happiness is dangling in front of you yet forever elusive?
That after you solve one issue that has been causing you unhappiness, another one crops up?
Perhaps it’s time to reach for the faucet and turn off the never-ending stream of disturbances to our equanimity.
I daresay that inner peace and happiness is more within our reach than we think.
And it may not take all that much fixing of things outside of us.
For if we turn off the faucet, and do a bit of mopping up, the flood will subside.
Why don’t all of us do it if it’s so simple?
Because it takes vulnerability, courage, and honesty.
We prefer to follow our habitual ways. The templates of our upbringing. The temptation to take the ‘short (but longer) way’.
Like when the kids are irritating you. It’s easier to turn on the screen and seat them in from of the drivel that entertains but hardly educates, than look for the reason that they are not settled. Its more effort to find a healthy way to channel their energies. The screen works for a while and then after you try to pry them from the screen they are edgy and discombobulated.
When you feel down in the dumps, a ‘pick me up’ of the substance or mediation of choice seems easier than getting to the root of your dissatisfaction.
On the religious front, it seems easier and more exciting to try eastern mediation than immerse into the traditional and time-tested path of mitzvah observant Judaism.
We often look for short-term solutions.
It is like mopping up the floor without getting to the source of the gushing water.
Those stopgaps help for some time, but they usually won’t work for long.
We are a nation of searchers and seekers. We cannot help but look for answers. The faucet cannot be turned off unless we reach the source. To reach the source of our searching soul we need to embrace our deepest existential truth.
Ironically, we don’t have far to go. We don’t need to travel to the far-flung corners of the earth. We don’t even have to get a one-on-one hours long appointment with a mystic and saint.
We have the deepest truths and spiritual reservoir inside of us.
We need not look beyond our own souls.
And tune in to the whisperings (or clamoring) of our ‘neshama’.
The truth that our Torah teaches us, is that our Jewish souls are yearning for attachment with G-d.
It’s a universal message that needs to shared with all of our fellow humans, all being created in the image of G-d.
A human being can only be truly happy when embracing the purpose of their creation.
The divinely transmitted mitzvahs are the true expression of the human spirit.
The Seven Universal Laws of moral living for all children of Noach.
And the six hundred and thirteen mitzvahs of the Torah for all Jewish people.
It is not enough for a Jew to be a ‘mentsch’ and a do-gooder. We have been tasked with more.
Ultimately, a Jew can only be happy when they recognize that they have been tasked with a Divine mission.
We carry out our mission, by first and foremost affirming that there is a Creator and He has created us for a G-dly purpose. By recognizing that G-d is ‘relying’ on us to fulfill His aspirations for His universe.
We implement this mission by performing mitzvahs and by studying Torah.
The inner peace and happiness that this brings is liberating.
It’s incredibly empowering to be entrusted with a mission by the Almighty.
Once you reframe life in the context of being ‘needed’ by G-d for His mission, everything else falls into place.
You will be able to stop ‘mopping floors’ and get to the business of fulfilling your potential of transforming light into darkness and materiality into spirituality.
Try it.
Open up your mind to this reality and your life has the potential of turning from a drudge to an inspiring journey.
Once you have made peace in your mind and heart that you are G-d’s agent here on earth you are attached to something much larger than yourself. You become sublimely submerged in the Oneness of G-d..
This way of thinking about life is called liberation. It’s an ‘exodus’ from the microcosmic Phaaroh who holds us hostage and wants us to stay alienated from G-d and dealing with ‘mopping the floors’.
True, it’s not easy, for our inner pharaoh prefers to have us so busy with solving problems and creating material creature comforts for ourselves that we don’t have the ability to journey to our rendezvous with G-d at Mount Sinai.
Yet, as Pesach is the celebration of the national Exodus thousands of years ago, contemporary ‘Exodus from Egypt’ in our own lives, means being liberated from the pointlessness and randomness which so many people feel about life. Liberation in this allegory means to leap up from the pits of aimlessness and disillusionment to the heights of inspiration and mindfulness.
Let us embrace our Divine prerogative to exit from our personal Egypt, and journey to Sinai, to receive the Torah and accept upon ourselves the exquisite Divine mission of making this world a place where G-d feels at home.
It’s got to be done joyfully.
Liberation needs to be celebrated.
So let’s party as we revel in our roles as Divine agents (all expenses paid) here on earth.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor