The Mirror

When I look in the mirror I see a handsome, tall (maybe 6′ 2″), muscular, distinguished looking Husband/Father/Rabbi who does everything right, makes all the best decisions and eats healthy to boot!  Cover of GQ?

When you look in the mirror what/who do you see? 

Do we see what we want to see or do we see what we need to see?  Or perhaps we see a real reflection of ourselves?

And what of looking at others? Do we see positivity in them? Do we see things that need fixing and correcting? Or do we see negativity and pass judgement?

In this week’s Torah portion we read of the great flood.  When the flood ends and everyone leaves the Ark, Noah turns to planting a vineyard and subsequently enjoying the harvest :-).  Noah surely was dealing with a lot of stress and he had a good drink.  He falls asleep drunk and naked. One of his sons Cham sees and goes to tell his brothers.  They (Yafes and Canaan) approach and “they walk backwards and cover their father’s nakedness, their faces were backwards and they didn’t see his nakedness”.

The question is obvious, if they are walking backwards and their faces are backwards, isn’t it clear that they don’t see his nakedness?  The Torah is teaching us something powerful.  When we see another’s shortcomings we can see them as something that needs fixing, that calls on us to action, but it doesn’t need to come with judgement and negativity.  While Cham saw and immediately went to tell his brothers, the brothers took action and didn’t see their father’s nakedness – his shortcomings.

A Jewish fellow was passing through town last week.  He was clearly an emotionally troubled fellow.  He asked to wrap Tefillin which of course we accommodated.  Then he said he was hungry.  So Dena invited him in and fed him.  Besides natural compassion, it is clear when these situations come our way that Hashem is telling us that we have something to fix in the world.

The Baal Shem Tov teaches that when we see negativity in another it is a mirror of ourselves.  That is, if we only saw something that needed fixing without judgement, it would be G-d’s way of telling us that we have an opportunity to make the world a better place – to feed a hungry person, to correct an injustice.
However, when we start judging we are stepping beyond what G-d set forth for us.  And as such it must mean that we are looking in a mirror and seeing something about ourselves that needs fixing.

This is what the Torah is teaching us with this story.  See in the mirror what you see in yourself.  When you see otherwise it means we have more self work to do.

Have a great Shabbos!

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