The British have had trouble with foxes. According to The Wall Street Journal, the sly little fellows had moved into London and are making a general nuisance of themselves. They knocked over rubbish cans, swiped shoes left out to dry, destroyed gardens, and leaved a foul odor. With the city borders being pushed farther into the countryside, the little troublemakers are adapting rather than moving—and many Londoners are frustrated and upset.
When you stop to think about it, little
“foxes” can become great aggravations for us as well as Jews. What we may
consider “little” or “harmless” sins can be our downfall. “Stretching the
truth,” for example, is actually lying. And gossip is nothing less than
character assassination. The trouble is that those little sins will inevitably
grow larger. Before we know it, we’ll need to do some serious repenting and
confessing.
If some little foxes have crept into the
backyards and gardens of your spiritual life, Yom Kippur is the time to deal
with them. The Machzor, the High Holiday prayer book, helps us identify them
when we daven the confessional. Al Chet. Admit your guilt, confess these pesky
little practices to God, make amends to those you’ve wrong, and get rid of them
before they ruin the entire landscape of your life.
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