Once a man came to a fork in the road, and not knowing which was the quickest way to town, he asked a child sitting nearby for directions. The child quipped, “This way is the short but long way, and that way is the long but short way.” The man went the shorter way and quickly found himself at the wall of the city, but found he was unable to enter. He made an about-face, and hurried back to the child and said, “Why did you say that this was the short road to town?” The child responded, “I said it was the short but long road!” And he went on to explain, “Once you get there easily, you cannot get in; you have to come back and go the long way around. However, you can also take the long but shorter way. Although up front it is long, once you get there, you are in the city, without any obstacles in the way.”
This story is the story of our lives. We look for success instantaneously—if not now, then at least as soon as possible. Even when it comes to COVID testing, we not only want a “rapid test” that gives results in 15-20 minutes (vs. a few days), we want the answer even quicker than that. We do not want an answer to the pandemic tomorrow, we wanted it yesterday.
More importantly, we want G-d to make sense to us, we want to understand. We also want to have faith to rely on when logic will not do. We want it all. How do we achieve it? Are we being unreasonable? After all, it is Rosh Hashana in just another week and we are faced with yet another dilemma: how do we observe the holiday this year? Do we go to shul? Do we stay and pray all alone? How do we guarantee that the holiday and the prayers are meaningful?
Fear not. Not only does the Torah address these concerns, it does so in this week’s Torah portion. The verse says: “The word is near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, so that you can fulfil it.” The verse is emphasizing that to be close to G-d there is a three-step process. Speech, feelings, and action. What does this mean?
First and foremost, a person must spend time learning, reading, studying, and asking questions. One must build their knowledge base. Without this foundation it is difficult to get to the next point in our life, which is to develop the feelings in our heart. If we want to become emotional, to have feelings for G-d and for Judaism, and to make our prayers heartfelt, it cannot happen in a vacuum. We have to invest our energy and time. That is why the words “in your heart” follows after “in your mouth”—only after we have studied and incorporated the ideas into our minds, creating an intellectual attachment, can we strengthen our faith-based connection as well. However, it cannot stop there.
It is important to bring our intellect and emotions into action. It is within our behavior, our consistent conduct, that we see what commitment really means. Our lives have ups and downs; reason alone cannot carry through every day, some days we need faith. Faith alone is at times not enough; we want answers. However, it is the reliability of our actions, of the daily Mitzvot that we perform that ultimately clinches our connection, the routine of our daily life, perhaps even the monotonousness of it all, that merges faith and reason together as one.
During the week before Rosh Hashana we start prepping for the Big Day. By reciting Selichot, we want to get in the zone, so that when the day comes, we are ready.
Plan ahead, be ready in time.