The Don’ts!

In one of the early years of our arrival to Atlanta, my father joined us for the High Holidays.  I asked him to deliver the Yom Kippur sermon.

The gist of his talk was that as much as we hear encouragement in adding positive Mitzvos, perhaps Yom Kippur is a day to talk about which of the Torah’s prohibitions we can consider embracing and not doing this year.

I was a bit taken aback.  My father himself was a Shliach and raised us in Long Beach California no less.  We were raised on the positive aspect of everything Chabad. Our whole modus operandi was increase in Mitzvos. Do more good. Positivity.  Why was my father going negative?

***

In Jacob’s dream, G-d tells him that his offspring will spread to the West, East North and South.  The Talmud frames this as a blessing of unlimited proportions. 

The Midrash says that Jacob merited this blessing on account of his Shabbos observance. 

Here is where it gets really cool. 

There are two aspects of Shabbos observance, the dos and the don’ts. As it relates to the do’s, each person is different.  Each person brings a different set of thoughts, feelings, attitudes and perspectives to their positive actions.  A Shabbat dinner may look and mean one thing to me and experienced completely differently for you. The part of our soul that is accessed, is the part that has definition and expression and is unique. 

But when it comes to the don’ts, we are all the same.  We all don’t do the same thing the same.  And when we don’t do a prohibition we access the same core of our soul, the part that is undefined. The part that is alike for all Jews.  The part that is unlimited.

Jacob merited an unlimited blessing on account of his observance of the prohibitions of Shabbos. Since, that observance stems from and is connected to, the unlimited part of his soul, the reward was measure for measure.

***

Thinking back to my father’s Yom Kippur speech it occurs to me that he was tapping into something pretty deep and profound.  It may be difficult for us at times to embrace the dos; keeping kosher, keeping Shabbos, etc.  But, in the ‘not doing’, we are accessing a part of our essence that is connected to each other and to G-d much more than the doing.

Are there areas in our lives that we can consider embracing and not doing this year?

Let’s connect more deeply with each other and with Hashem.

Have a great Shabbos!

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