Elevating yourself#parashatakhreimot#devartorah#parashathashavua

I remember watching my young grandson and his friends play T-Ball. I smiled from ear to ear because it was very entertaining. In this version of baseball, young players often run to the wrong base or don’t know what to do with the ball if they happen to catch it.  If we were watching a professional baseball game, these mistakes would not be so funny.

It’s okay for young athletes to struggle—not knowing what to do or not getting everything exactly right. They are trying and learning. Practices can be hard and difficult, but absolutely necessary. The key to become a better ballplayer is elevating your game at every practice.

This week’s Torah portion Akhrai Mot teaches us we should never stop and growing and becoming the person we aspire to be. The Ktav Sofer commenting on the verse “My ordinances you shall do, and my statues you shall observe, to walk with them, I am the Lord, I am your God” (Leviticus 18:4) explains that “to walk with them” means a person needs to walk from one level to the next. That is, a person should constantly keep on growing and elevating himself.

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin writes: “It is not enough to keep on the same level that you were on the previous day. Rather, each day should be a climb higher than the day before. When difficult tests come your way, you might not always appreciate them. But the only way to keep on elevating yourself is to keep passing more and more difficult life-tests. View every difficulty as a means of elevating yourself by applying the appropriate principles. At the end of each day, ask yourself, ‘What did I do today to elevate myself a little higher?’ If you cannot find an answer, ask yourself, ‘What can I plan to do tomorrow to elevate myself?’” (Growth through Torah, page 270)

Now that Passover is over, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are only six months away. What better time than now to take a six-month review of the promises to become the person you truly aspire to be that you made to yourself. If you’re growing, keep on growing. If not, is not too late to make a course change and get back on track to elevate yourself each and every day.