There are so many mitzvos, we can’t possibly work on everything at once. The idea is to pick one small area to improve in

Have you ever heard about the idea of taking on a kabbalah? As Tishrei comes around, we want to think about ways we can grow and be better than we were before. There are so many mitzvos, we can’t possibly work on everything at once. The idea is to pick one small area to improve in. When you’ve mastered that, you can move on to the next small thing. It’s like adding one brick at a time to a building.

Words of Wisdom

Rav Shlomo Hoffman ztz’l was a talmid of Rav Issac Sher ztz”l. When he was a 23-year-old bochur, Rav Sher approached him before Rosh Hashanah and asked him if he’d made any kabbalos.

When Rav Hoffman showed his list of kabbalos to Rav Sher, Rav Sher asked if he’d practiced any of his kabbalos to make sure he could really keep them. When Rav Hoffman said he hadn’t practiced, Rav Sher tore up the list.

Rav Sher taught Rav Hoffman that he should only have kabbalos he’s already tried, so that he’s totally sure he can keep them.

Rav Hoffman said he learned an important lesson. We should make sure our kabbalos match our abilities. Maybe we think it’s better to take on something big, but then if we aren’t able to keep it, we’ll feel bad about ourselves instead of growing.

We should pick something very small, so that it’s easy for us to do it, and then take on more in little steps. All those little steps will add up to something big!

Rav Wolbe gives a mashal in his sefer Alei Shur. He was once flying in an airplane over Egypt and the plane started flying very close to the ground. Rav Wolbe was worried there was something wrong with the airplane, but the pilot told him they were flying low so the Egyptian radar wouldn’t see them, because the radar would be looking for planes higher in the sky.

Rav Wolbe thought that was a great way to think of our yetzer hara. If we pick something big to change, our yetzer hara will fight with us and try to get us to give up. But if we pick something very small, our yetzer hara will think it’s too small to bother with and leave us alone. If we keep adding very, very small steps we can sneak past the yetzer hara and grow very big, slowly over time.