Mr. Bay, my sixth grade teacher, never did work out what was happening to his “Scholar Dollars”. When a few of my classmates broke into his “bank” and walked away with thousands of “dollars”, it caused rampant inflation to be injected into the “marketplace” and threatened to destroy his whole incentive system.
The big question was, where were they hiding it?? Where was the stash of pilfered “Scholar Dollars”? It turns out that the clever scammers were hiding their booty under his nose! In the back of the classroom there was a large locker where Mr. Bay would keep his supplies. Every morning it would be unlocked and every evening after school it would be locked. And unbeknownst to him, every day a nondescript pencil case at the back of the closet would be opened and a few more “Scholar Dollars” would find their way into a few boys’ pockets.
Drawing on lessons learned during many years in Soviet gulag, Reb Mendel Futerfas, one of the Chassidic teachers of the past generation, would tell a similar story. His cell mates, talented pickpockets on “the outside”, were compulsive gamblers and although outlawed in the prison, managed to keep their practice going. Their trick? When the guards would come in to search the cell for cards, they would slip the pack into the guards own pocket and before he would leave the cell they would retrieve the cards.
You already know that I must have a lesson buried in these two stories!
When we observe a negative character trait in a friend or relative; when we see someone whose behavior is not up to par; we must first realize that this is a sign of our own deficiency in the same area.
Elul is a month of introspection (a long extinct practice once known to mankind…). It is so easy to help others with evaluating their behavior! We have a knack in knowing just what the other person should do. However when it comes to ourselves, we are so quick to excuse. It’s been a long week; I’ve got such a busy schedule; how can I afford it? If you were a teacher and a student handed you a late note using one of your own excuses, you would not accept it!
In the lead up to Rosh Hashanah, let’s recover the long lost practice of introspection and choose to make thoughtful decisions about our life and our Jewishness.
Enough with the excuses!