Our twins turned 11 this week! Crazy where the time goes.  They’re not teens yet, but they’re not babies either.  They are in the tween (get it ‘between’?)! 

 

It’s actually a really challenging place to be, because we all live in that tension.

 

On the one hand we would like to be mature, anchored, and be guided by a deep faith and trust.  On the other hand, we’re still a kid, emotional, and want to have a tantrum.  We’re trying to figure it out just like the tween.

 

And there is no magical answer! It’s a journey, for real.

 

At the opening of this week’s Parsha the Torah says that Jacob went out.  The Chasidic masters tell us that this going out is Jacob going out of his boxed in place.  In other words, the place that holds him back from living his fullest potential.

 

That is the in-the-tween.  Not getting stuck there but being able to take our emotions, validate them and bring them into our mature relationship with G-d!

 

This is tough as anything, and often we won’t succeed at actually “going out”.  But at least we know what the destination is and on occasion we can actually arrive there.

 

So, I wish happy birthday to my tweens, and wish for myself and you, to go out, even temporarily and on occasion, from the tween state, and to bring with us the totality of our being, emotions and immaturity and all, and enter into a profound relationship with Hashem.

 

Good Shabbos!