Daily we are met with distracting images, busy work schedules, cultural/peer pressure and other opportunities to sin. It can be from a alcohol advertisement, an invite to a party on Shabbat (or Sunday morning), encouragement to slander or hate someone, the desire to close a business deal, a gossip magazine, or even the constant public mocking of one simply for holding religious beliefs. As a result, although it might be physically easier today than in the past to try to be Holy (with close churches, websites, Kosher restaurants, bible study groups etc.) it is undoubtedly spiritually more difficult to commit to a life of Holiness, and protecting our spiritual well-being.
In this week’s Torah portion, Jews learn about a person who takes a vow, committing to abstain from wine. In taking such a vow, the Torah says that not only may he not drink wine, but he also may not eat grapes, raisins and even grape seeds and skins! The Torah is creating a fence to protect the individual from falling foul of his own vow. If one is forbidden even to eat grape skins, he will never even come close to drinking wine.
We learn from this the importance of making fences to protect our spiritual well-being. When it comes to the material world, this concept comes naturally. To protect our money, we put it in a bank. We mark bottles of poison and/or give them difficult-to-open caps. We even place barriers around our homes and cars.
When it comes to our spiritual possessions however we we are unfortunately not always as careful. We often find ourselves rushing toward situations that can only lead to being spiritually cut-off. What married man hasn’t looked at a sexy woman who was not his wife, gone to strip clubs, refused to pick up the phone when his wife was calling, refrained from telling his wife that he loved her, or forgotten to spend enough time with their family? Similarly, what woman hasn’t criticized her husband in public, wore revealing clothing, read gossip or fashion magazines, or forgotten to spend enough time with their family? All of these seemingly innocuous acts are the “eating grape seeds and skins” in our present lives.
Are our spiritual possessions not as important as our material ones? We protect that which we consider important. Thus we should take the time to accept fences upon our daily lives to help us live on the moral level that we would like to. We should make fences to ensure not only that we are not slipping spiritually, but that we are actually growing
We all have tremendous spiritual wealth that can slowly slip away if not fenced in. There are also many spiritual poisons. If we don’t lock them away in well-marked bottles, we may inadvertently partake of them. Making a fence is the best way to protect what we have. If we refrain from making them, it is at our peril.
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For those Jews who celebrate it, have a meaningful Shabbat. To everyone else, have a great weekend!
