Windshield Focus

Picture for a moment someone who is driving but rather than remaining focused on looking forward through her windshield, she instead spends her time looking in the rear view mirror. How far will she get? How safe will her driving be?

Too often we make the same mistake with life. So many of us allow ourselves to be dragged down by our pasts. We are acutely aware of our past mistakes and wrongdoings, and we feel that we are doomed to repeat them. So much so, that we frequently make sure to repeat them, creating our own self-fulfilling prophecies.

This is an especially important concept to be focused on this month in the run-up to the High Holidays. When we recite viduy (confession) we should tell ourselves that the idea of mentioning the sins we have committed is in order to expel them from our beings; the act of viduy is an act of purging. Once we have it out of our system, let it remain out.

Our yetzer hora, the part of our being that wants to keep us down, desires nothing more than to keep reminding us of our past shortcomings and to insist that the past limits our future. We need to keep our eyes on the future and not allow the past to hold it back.

Personally I find this to be a very important message at this point in life. Right now I am transitioning from being involved in Jewish Education full time - as I have been for over two decades - into spending time in the business world. I have never had any success in this area before, and have always been convinced that I do not have the ability to have such success. Each day as I face new challenges that threaten the success of these endeavors, I need to remind myself that I have to focus on future success and not on what I have been convinced of in the past.

The same is true as I work on myself in areas of spiritual growth where I have tried to change in the past, and not achieved what I desired. As I try again and find myself challenged, I cannot allow myself to let the past be my teacher about my future. I have to leave the past in the past and move on to new successes.

The End of Jewish Guilt

As Rabbi Aroush continues explaining the practical Emunah (faith) of the Simple Man he shares the idea that one cannot undergo the process of Teshuva (return to God) until and unless one has complete faith in the idea that there is nothing other than God. One has to come to terms with the fact that whatever happened in the past, including his own sins, all was the will of God. By coming to terms with that, one can engage in introspection as to how to have a more spiritually productive future, without engaging in self-recrimination and guilt about the past.

Rather one should look at his past, warts and all, and ask himself "What message was God sending me when he allowed me to do this or that?" Instead of being upset about what he has done, the person should embrace each thing as a loving message from a caring God. No depression, no crying, no frustration. "How should this incident lead me to understanding how to get closer to God?"