Tell My Creator
“My what an ugly man you are!” And he retorted, “why don’t you tell my Creator, ‘what an ugly creation this is!’”
No, this was not a clip from a 1980s comedy. It was a scene from the 1800 year old book called the Babylonian Talmud. Obviously the retort made clear that no one should insult the humanity of another. This is the kind of information a person should learn an internalise in an elementary school.
But there’s more to the story than that, with a grown up lesson. You see, this interaction takes place alongside a body of water. And because of that, some of the rabbis suggest that what was happening was that both entities in the stoey were the same person- it was just one person walking next to a lake and reacting to his own distorted reflection. They understood the very normal human inclination to critique oneself. To even berate oneself.
And so who replied with “why don’t you tell your Creator what a bad creation this is!”- came from the a Creator Godself!
The lesson here therefore becomes, do not be overly critical of yourself. Certainly don’t berate yourself in a way that a stranger should not berate you.
I share this story that has a beautiful surface level lesson for the secondary lesson. And I share it now because this Thursday, we enter into the month of Elul, the month of reflection before the new year holy day of Rosh Hashanah. This is a time of deep personal reflection where we are to evaluate our relationships with the environment, our community, our family m, ourselves, and God. And while it is important to reflect upon our actions relative to the values we support to hold, we should also not go too far with it to a point that we berate ourselves and call ourselves, or even our actions, “ugly.“
So this is my message- yes this is a time of reflection and I invite you to join me in doing that. Even reading a chapter of my book, ReSOULutions every day to consider our actions this past year. (And please join me for a special class on the book on 8/26; register HERE). But also to be sure not to be too self critical.
As it is back to school time, I am reminded of what my kids’ schools encourage: have a growth mindset. To not be easily satisfied with success. But for everyone to always strive to get better with each day such that growth is built into the system. It is a given. We should each expect notes to improve. But always as an encouraging coach or mentor and not as an angry drill sergeant.
The messages we tell ourselves have consequences. Let’s love ourselves into our best potential by envisioning our best and championing what we can do instead of beating ourselves for what we didn’t.
And let’s champion one another as we champion ourselves. That’s how we’re keeping it sacred.
Together, we’re #keepingitsacred…
Rabbi Heather Miller Founder, Keeping It Sacred |
The above is an excerpt from a Keeping It Sacred newsletter. If you want to read the entire newsletter or any from our archives, please head over to: keepingitsacred.com/news And if you'd like the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week, please share your name and email address in the fields at the bottom of the page in the purple boxes. Thanks for your interest, and thanks for #keepingitsacred… |