Walking into the waiting room of a psychiatrist, the salesperson noticed one of the patients sitting upright with his hand in his shirt. Curious, he turned to the individual and asked why he was sitting in such a peculiar manner. “What’s with the hand in the shirt?” he asked. “I am Napoleon,” came the reply. “Really?” he asked, “how do you know? Who told you?” “G-d. G-d told me.” “Napoleon” replied.
Suddenly, from across the room, came an indignant shout: “I DID NOT!”
An unfortunate joke perhaps, but now that I have your attention - listen to this: the Torah actually tells us that we should be like G-d. Maybe that’s where all these people get the idea? Maybe they’re the normal ones and we’re crazy?
It can’t be that the Torah is telling us to think that we’re G-d, right? Yes, that’s true. But it does tell us that we should walk in G-d’s ways and the commentaries explain this means that we should make ourselves as similar as possible to G-d. But what exactly does that mean?
No, you probably won’t find a sign on any sidewalk indicating “G-d’s Ways” but the Torah clearly points us in the right direction. There are very clear instructions regarding every aspect of life. Which leads us to a question: What is the Torah actually adding with this statement? I mean, we have 613 mitzvot, all clearly communicated in the Torah. We have numerous verses exhorting us to obey these laws and numerous verses emphasizing their eternal and binding nature. So what exactly is being added by this instruction to “Walk in G-d’s ways”?
Here’s an idea: Since we already know about G-d’s ways through all the verses communicating them and encouraging their observance, perhaps here the emphasis is on the walking? That we should WALK in G-d’s ways.
When it comes to mitzvah observance it’s easy to get stuck in one spot. Either we get stuck in our non-observance: “How could I ever keep shabbat or kosher etc? It can’t be for me” or we get stuck in our level of observance and remain stagnant, we don’t grow in our observance of - or our appreciation for - the Torah.
Therefore the Torah tells us: “Walk in G-d’s ways” - keep on moving in the right direction. And the walking metaphor is actually quite deep - on the one hand walking is incremental, implying that no matter where we’re at, we can and should take one step in the right direction. At the same time, when one takes even one step forward, they are now in an entirely new place than they were before. Each step brings us to a whole new place with no connection to the place we were previously standing, implying the ability to grow exponentially.
Rosh Hashanah is in just over a week - take some time to consider this in a serious way. We’re always looking to perfect our game when it comes to physical matters, now is the time to amp up our spiritual experience.
And if you need a coach - talk to me, I’d be happy to help!