As Rosh Hashanah approaches, the Jewish people focus on how to avoid sinning becoming a normal thing in everyday lives. Unfortunately, sinning is present in our lives, people get used to sinning, allowing it to become something commonplace and expected. In Elul, we reflect and recognize where we currently fall short, as well as how we can improve and do teshuva.
There was once a Jewish man and his wife who traveled to a small island for a relaxing vacation. The hotel they stayed at hosted many other Jews, as well. During breakfast one day, the man and his wife were trying to identify what was and wasn’t kosher from the hotel breakfast. They witnessed the waiter asking some other Jews what they wanted for breakfast, to which they responded a variety of things that were either definitely not kosher or hadn’t been checked out. The man and his wife were in shock. They couldn’t believe that all of these Jews were eating non-kosher foods with seemingly no remorse. The couple took some kosher cereal and went back to their room.
The man began to cry as he thought about what he witnessed. When his wife wondered what was wrong, he responded, “I can’t believe that all those Jewish people had a choice to eat kosher yet still they chose not to, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. If I were in that position and had done that, I would never have been able to go along with the rest of my day.” The guilt would eventually overcome him.
The next day, the couple decided to avoid and ignore their fellow Jews in the hotel. They didn’t want to see Jews eat non-kosher food guilt-free again. But this was unavoidable. By the end of the week, the couple stopped paying attention to everyone who was eating non kosher food. They just tried to go along with their day without thinking about the other Jews at breakfast.
Consequently, people behave in certain ways again and again. These behaviors become normalized, regardless of whether they are right or wrong. The first time a wrong action is performed, the person feels terrible and guilty. As behaviors are repeated, even the impermissible ones, the person develops an immunity to their own immorality. What may have started out as completely unacceptable turns into a little bump in someone’s day.
With Rosh Hashanah coming up, it is up to the Jewish people to view the “normalized” sins as something wrong and do Teshuva to make up for it. Even though something may seem inconsequential, we should take a second to think about what it would feel like if it were the first time it was being done, and then reflect upon it.
May everyone have a sweet new year!
By: Simcha Rosenberg (10th) and Tamar Van Dam (10th)
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