So how do you know if something is really important?  Simple.  Everybody says how important it is…and nobody does it.  Want an example?  I could get 99 out of 100 people to agree that to speak “lashon hara” (gossip/slander) about another person is wrong and in fact is in opposition to their personal value system.  I also know that if I polled those folks, 98 out of the 99 will still routinely speak lashon hara.  Why is this?

The truth of the matter is that nice ideas and the actual implementation of those ideas have nothing to do with each other.  You can get the vast majority of humanity to agree up and down about the great value of ethics, altruism and selflessness, but at the end of the day, in the absence of extreme persistence, dedication and stalwartness in the face of failure, most of us will not fully live our ideals.  That’s why we meet dating coaches who can’t seem to maintain a relationship, therapists whose personal lives are a train wreck and sometimes even spiritual leaders who’s day to day existence is anything but transcendental.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe that these people are fully committed to these concepts…but only intellectually, and there is a huge chasm between the head and the heart.

Historian Paul Johnson wrote a fantastic book that deals with this phenomenon called “Intellectuals“.  In it, he outlines the philosophies of several major intellectual figures from Western Culture (Russo, Marx, etc) and then demonstrates through primary sources what their lives were actually like.  Needless to say, they don’t match up too impressively.

Judaism has long maintained that the root of self esteem and the key factor in integrating what we claim to believe, is for our insides to match our outsides.  When we behave in a manor that is consistent with what we hold dear, we feel good about ourselves and the idea settles more deeply within us.  When we behave in ways that oppose what we know to be right and good we feel hypocritical and unhappy.

Rosh HaShana is just around the corner.  As the leaves change and the world turns towards Monday Night Football, the Torah teaches that it’s time to start looking within.  Now is the time to start making a plan for your new year-one that maximizes our integrity and authenticity and in so doing makes us all much happier.  For anyone interested in getting started on this, I invite you to a series that is starting this Monday night @ The Aish Center, Pray, Eat, Love.

Shabbat Shalom