Parsha_Push Parshat Shoftim

The character of the individual is complex, made up of their traits and their life experiences. The question as to which traits will be expressed frequently and what experiences dominate, depends, among other things, on what they choose to highlight or to emphasize. For example, students studying for an important exam, will suddenly notice how other components in their lives are understood differently in light of the subject matter they are learning. People learning daf-yomi, observe the current events with different emphasis. Pregnant women (and sadly those who fail to become pregnant when they want to) have keen eye-sight when it comes to noticing all the pregnant women around them. Those who occupy themselves with chessed, are more open to seeing those in need. We can all feel how the choice as to how much news to consume has an immediate effect on the different ways we view the world and the different actions we choose to take.

Hence, we can understand the opinion of those commentators who hold that the reason God instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son was that God – who already knew how God-fearing Abraham was – wanted him to actively demonstrate that he was a God-fearing man. Many traits are part of a person’s potential, but if they are not expressed actively, their effect on the person’s persona is dim. Love as a feeling is not nearly as potent as love as a verb.

Subsequently, we can explain and better understand the Torah’s requirement of the king to read the Torah all the days of his life. The king doesn’t only need to know the content of the Torah, the Torah needs to be an active part of his day-to-day experience. It was not enough to have the Torah in the long-term memory of one’s brain, the king needed to have it ready to extract. Because we are not only the sum of our knowledge, traits and experience. Much of who we are has to do with the choices we make as to what we emphasize in our day-to-day lives.

As we enter Elul, we have an opportunity to choose how to design our experiences, select the texts that we read, harness our thoughts and reflections, and thus decide which of our traits to enhance.