Stamps of (Dis)approval
Summer – a time for swimming, camp, vacations and plenty of time for kids to do some crazy things. Kids can come up with ways of entertaining themselves that leave you scratching your head in disbelief.
Last week my 7-year-old came into the house covered from head to toe, looking like he just got a free pass to a tattoo parlor. Incredibly, he and his cousin found a rubber stamp that we use to mark our name inside of our books and proceeded to stamp themselves all over their bodies. ALL OVER THEIR BODIES. Arms, legs, back, stomach and even their faces.
“What were you thinking?!” I asked my son (calmly, of course). If you have kids you already know the answer he gave me. “Nothing,” he said nonchalantly. (Variation: “I don’t know”.)
He was promptly marched into the shower where he spent the next 1/2 hour trying to scrub off the ink. Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for my library) this ink is veeerrry good. It doesn’t come off too easily. Still marked up, he was dumped into the bath where he soaked for another 1/2 hour to try and get clean. Finally, we smeared make-up remover on his face in an attempt to get the ink off. Ultimately, while we succeeded in removing a lot of the ink, there were still a considerable number of stamps on him.
In the morning he was embarrassed by what he looked like and refused to go to day camp. He realized he looked strange and was ashamed to appear like that in front of his friends. (Personally, I imagine his fellow 7-year-olds would have thought it pretty cool.) Fortunately it wasn't a very warm day and he was able to wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, thereby covering up most of the stamps. Pacified somewhat, he agreed to go to camp.
Why do I mention this amusing (after the fact!) episode? Because this Saturday night Jews all over the world will gather late at night to recite special prayers, Selichot, in preparation of Rosh Hashanah and the High Holidays. In short, the yearly accounting that we have to give to our Creator is right around the corner.
People tend to be lax when it comes to doing things that the Torah prohibits. What we fail to realize is that every time we sin we are taking our most precious possession – our soul, the essence of who we are – and staining it. The more often we sin, the more marked up and stained it gets. Spoke something forbidden? You just took an ink stamp and made marks on your soul. Ate something not kosher? More stamps. Took something that you weren’t entitled to? More stamps. You get the point. And these stains are a whole lot more indelible than plain ink. They don’t come off easily.
If G-d were to ask us “What were you thinking?!” our feeble attempts at justification would be as unintelligent as our child’s responses of “nothing,” or “I don’t know.”
The problem with a stained-up soul is, while we may not realize the embarrassment at the time we are marking it up, there will be a time when we are embarrassed to “go out in public” and be seen with this dirty soul. After we leave this world it will be a tremendous source of shame to come back to G-d with a soul that is stained and marked up beyond recognition.
Fortunately for us, G-d has given us a tremendous gift: the gift of the High Holidays. The High Holidays are a time when we can “take a long bath” to erase these impossible-to-remove stains. Of course, this bath is not comprised of water. Instead it is made up of prayer, charity, repentance and good deeds. Miraculously, this works better than any bath. Done correctly, we can emerge completely clean, even cleaner than we were before. We won’t even need long pants and long sleeves to cover ourselves up and we will be prepared to come appear before G-d squeaky clean.
As Rosh Hashanah looms, let’s remember the gift and power that are the High Holidays and take advantage of the opportunity they afford us. We may be as foolish as a 7-year-old and spend all year marking ourselves up. Let’s at least utilize this time of year to clean off those marks.
Shabbat shalom!
Rabbi Yosef Koval
