Woman's World - 002 Five Minutes a Day

Caught up in pre-Yom Tov stress

We learned Navi. In Navi we learned about Jerusalem and the great people that lived here.

We are now in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. What is our current day situation? We are in the center of Jerusalem. How is Jerusalem supposed to look? What should the streets look like?

Everyone is buying s’chach and walls for their Sukkah. We are looking to beautify our Sukkah…

What about our souls? Are we looking to beautify our souls?

Are we running to put together our Sukkah because it is a mitzvah or because that’s what everyone else is doing?

When we walk in the streets, do we feel that it is almost Yom Kippur?

We are caught up in life. Our souls and our Yiddishkeit is missing. Non-Jews also fill their streets with holiday shopping when it comes to their holidays. What is the difference then between us and them?? We are just being caught up in the upcoming Yom Tov – our Yiddishkeit is missing.

The entire way we live our life is lacking any direction. We are just going through motions. Yom Tov to us is just a hectic time full of running around and shopping.  We do not feel in the streets that Yom Kippur is any day now. The streets are full of pre-Yom Tov stress.

Stop and think

We have to be connected to the purpose that we came down onto this world for. Everyone – without exception – should stop once a day and think for a few minutes: Who am I? Why did I come onto this world?

You can’t do this when you are on the bus or while you’re talking to your friends. You need to be alone and think: What is my life about? And why did we come onto this world? For our friends?? Of course we need friends, but that is not why we came onto this world.

Our purpose on this world

We have one purpose on the world – only one: To be close to Hashem. Whatever we do in our life are the tools we need to get close to Him. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkos, Yom Tov and our friends are all tools that help us get there, but they are not the ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is to get close to Hashem.

Someone came to me once with a problem that he cannot control his eating habits. He loves food and eats too much. He asked me what he can do about this. I told him, “Before you eat something, think: “Will this bring me closer to Hashem – or further?”

Every day for a few minutes, think: “I came onto this world for a purpose.” We all know this, but because we are so caught up in life we forget it.

When you get up in the morning, think: “Why am I getting out of bed in the morning?” Your soul returned to you after a night’s sleep; others do not wake up sometimes. Why did Hashem return your soul to you? For what purpose?

Ask a teenager: What do you want? A boy will say, “To learn good.” A girl might say, “To be popular and have lots of friends.” When they get older they say, “To get a good shidduch.” But none of them are thinking what they really want out of life. No one is thinking why they even came onto this world!

We learned Navi; we learned about great people like Yechezkel HaNavi, Dovid HaMelech and Shaul HaMelech. Is there anyone here who thinks that any of these tzaddikim would want to walk down modern day Jerusalem, even in the most chareidi neighborhoods? The streets are full of restaurants and shopping centers. There is nothing wrong with eating food or buying clothes, but the streets of Jerusalem do not look the way they are supposed to! We are missing the truth.

Just think for a few minutes a day what your purpose is on this world. This advice is not from me – it is from the Ramchal in sefer Derech Etz Chaim.

We ask for “life”

Hashem gave us life. On Rosh Hashanah we ask, “Remember us for life.” But what is the life we want…?

It is impossible to change our life in one day. But this we can do – once a day, let us stop for a few minutes and think why we are living, what our purpose is.

I hope you listened to these words. These are not ideas – these words are practical guidance for life. If we do this, everything will change, because this is the root of all that we need to do. If we do this every day, we will see improvement in all areas!