As many of you know, I was away last weekend attending the Bar Mitzvah of my oldest nephew, Nosson, in Houston TX. Thank G-d, Rivkah and I had a wonderful time -- it was so beautiful to spend the Simcha together with my entire family.
But allow me to share with you another reflection from the trip:
Originally, I had planned to travel alone to the Bar Mitzvah. It was my dear mother who encouraged me to bring Rivkah along. Chana and I wondered how Rivkah would do with the very quick "in and out", not too mention the late nights and her being away from her mother and Mendel. But we decided to go ahead with the plan and we prepared Rivkah for the trip, telling her that she was a big girl who could now travel with her "Tatty" and see all of her cousins at the Bar Mitzva. Rivkah even had to do a few special "big girl" Mitzvot the week before we left. And when the day came, she was so excited, really feeling old and special at being able to go on this special trip with her father.
Baruch Hashem, she was really great the entire time. Despite the unusual schedules, she was always in a cheerful mood, played very well with her cousins, and handled the flight well even though there was a delay (and the trip took more than eight hours). When someone in Houston commented, "I bet this is because she really feels special being able to go with her "Tatty," a light-bulb went off and I thought of something I learned on that week's Torah Portion.
The Parsha last week began with the instruction "You shall be holy, for I, (Hashem your G-d), am holy." I noticed a commentary I had never seen before from Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin who, using a play on words, read the verse this way: "You shall be holy. (How? By training yourself to say) "I am holy." He continued by saying that each time you are tempted to do something improper, you should tell yourself "I am holy and this is not befitting of me." And each time you are considering doing a Mitzvah you should tell yourself "I am holy - doing this is an expression of the real me." Put simply, the way we view ourselves very much influences the way we act.
On the trip last weekend, my daughter looked at herself as old and special, and Baruch Hashem, she acted the part. What a lesson for life! By taking a few minutes each day to think about our G-dly soul and that we indeed inherently holy, we would begin looking at ourselves differently making it that much easier to live a life of holiness illuminated by Torah study and good deeds.