15 Aug SHOFTIM: A MONTH TO FIND YOUR GOLD

It is told that in 1957, a
large edifice in Tibet
needed to be relocated, and
so all the furniture,
including a large, ancient
clay statue, had to be moved.
As the people were carrying this statue, they
slipped, causing the statue to fall and crack
slightly.
As they examined the crack, they saw
something unusual – it was glowing. There
was a shine from the place where the statue
cracked.
It turned out that this statue had actually
been made of pure gold, and then covered by
a layer of clay.
Evidently, centuries earlier, there was a war,
and before going out to war, the people
decided to cover the statue with clay so that
the enemy would not know its value. But all
these people died in battle – so nobody knew
that it was actually made of gold.
This story, in my view, teaches us exactly
what the month of Elul is about.
It’s about chipping away at the “clay”
exterior to reveal the “golden” interior.
The Gemara brings the view of Rabbi
Yehuda – which has been accepted – stating
that Am Yisrael are always considered
Hashem’s children, even when we do not act
properly. Even if it appears that we are “clay,”
the truth is that deep inside, we are gold. We
have a treasure of goodness inside of us, and
Elul is the time to discover this priceless
treasure.
This process is especially challenging in our
generation, which faces problems which no
generation before us ever faced. In fact, the
problems we face are precisely the OPPOSITE
of the problems faced in earlier generations.
Throughout human history, the single most
urgent problem was scarcity. Food and water
were hard to come by. It was hard for people
to obtain the knowledge and information they
needed. People had precious little free time
for relaxation and enjoyment.
Today, we have the exact opposite
problem. We have too much food. We have
too much information. We have too much
recreation. We have too much free time.
We have so much, that we’re
distracted. We’re distracted by food, by cars,
by clothes, by video games, by media, by
news, by sports.
All this becomes the “clay” that covers the
gold inside of us. We all have such a precious
soul, and so many beautiful qualities, but the
deluge of distractions around us diverts our
attention from the gold. We get preoccupied
with all this “stuff” until our golden interior is
no longer visible.

Elul is the time to find our gold. This month
is, primarily, about focus. About focusing
more on what’s really important in life. About
trying to avoid all the distractions, so we can
rediscover our priorities.

If we make this effort, looking to change our
focus, to pay more attention to the important
things in life, then we will truly strike gold –
we will realize that we are capable of so much
more greatness than we ever imagined.