Have you looked in a mirror lately? What do you see? Have you noticed that in a mirror image your right hand seems to be on your left side, and vice-versa?
How true is our perspective and are we sure that we are seeing things correctly?
In this week’s Torah reading we are told to follow the words of our Sages in each generation. The verse (17:11) says “according to the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from that which they shall tell you, to the right, nor to the left”. Rashi quotes the Sifrei – even if they tell you that left is right and right is left, you should listen to them. This seems to be very difficult. Why should you listen to them if you know they are wrong?
I saw a beautiful explanation for this from Rabbi Moshe Oelbaum in the name of his father. If you pay attention to the words of Rashi, you will notice that he said right and left. He didn’t choose East and West. If they said something that was obviously wrong like mixing up East and West, you may not be obligated to listen to them. On the other hand, right and left are subjective. It depends on where you are standing. When I am facing you, my right is your left and my left is your right. Rashi is telling us that if the Sages say that right is left, then you should listen to them because they are telling you that you are facing the wrong way. Your perspective is wrong. If you turn around and face in the same direction as them, you will realize that they are correct and you were mistaken.
We have just begun the month of Elul. Rosh Hashanah is a few weeks away and now is the time for us to “reflect”, to look at ourselves and see where we can improve and how we can strengthen our relationship with Hashem. However, if we are just looking at ourselves in the mirror we need to be aware that the reflection we see is distorted. In order to truly see ourselves and the rest of the world clearly, we need to line ourselves up on the same side as our Sages and view the world from the Torah’s perspective.
Good shabbos,
Rabbi Shaps and the JET Team
