A man walked into the Interior Ministry and asked to have his name changed for the New Year.
The clerk asked: "Why do you want to change your name?"
Said the man: "Because everyone laughs at me."
"OK,? what's your name?" Asks the clerk.
"Joshua Flotzka," the man said.
The clerk tried to hold back her laugh. With difficulty, she said with a straight face, "And what would you like to change your name to?"
The man answers: "Nachum Flotzka? ."
A new year, new beginnings. This is an optimum time for change, but sometimes we are not so successful.
This week's Torah portion begins with the action - "????" - "Went"
?"???? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ?????..."And Moshe went and spoke these words to all of Israel"
What does " Moshe went" mean? Where is he going? It would be sufficient to have written "and Moshe will speak these words" ...?
The sages explain that Moshes' words to Israel were always geared towards progress, movement, productivity - "will go" - to go and ascend all the time. What then do we do if past thoughts remind us of who we once were?
There is a story told of a righteous person who repented and mended his ways. He went to the Maggid of Mezrich z"l, to lament, that the thoughts of his past do not give him rest.
The Maggid told him: There was once a Jew living in Poland, and he owned a pub that was adjacent to his house. Every day the locals would visit him to drink until they got drunk and defile his place with their vomit. Not only that they would also break his chairs, cups, and bottles. The pub owner had enough of this trouble and decided to close the pub and turn the place into a clothing store. Once in the middle of the night some drunkards came, and started knocking on the door of his house shouting -
"Jew, let us have a drink, open up for us, we are looking for good wine".?
The Jew heard their shouting in the middle of the night and ignored their wails, did not get up or move. - They did not let up, they, kept knocking again and again on the door of his house. Eventually, he called back to them from behind the locked door -?
"I no longer own a pub, there is no wine here, and no beers, you have nothing to look for here anymore. From now on you will only find clothing here. The Maggid concluded
?"This is the way to deal with all kinds of bad thoughts. We do not quarrel with them, do not start a conversation and discussion with them, but simply decide - to open a new page. Recognize you are no longer the same person".
?Even if the thoughts from the past knock on the door and try to remind us of who we were - do not get dismayed or discouraged, do not let them in. They may come back again and again, but eventually, they will leave.?
We have opened a new year, do not let past thoughts drag you backward. No matter what happens, the main thing is to continue - "will go"."????"?
Keep in mind- every new endeavor takes time. Only if you keep pushing forward and do not give up will you reap the benefits.
Shabbat Shalom
?Rav Yitzchak Fanger
