[RBS] pre-Tishrei thoughts

[Phil'n'Chanie Rosenfelder]

Are you less a Jew because you  are imperfect?

what if you really really do a lot of things wrong?  don't always
follow halacha?  use the christian calendar occasionally?     steal
other people's time by putting your buggy in line at the supermarket
and the run to get a last item?   talk lashon hara?  believe lashon
hara?  pay your babysitter a day or two late sometimes?
maybe there is a mitzva or two which really challenge your yetzer
hara, an more often that you'd like, the bad side wins?

are you still a Jew?  is your imperfect home still  Jewish home?

we can all list things we have done wrong

we can also all list many things we do right.

the Talmud Yerushalami ,for instance, lists as a Ben Olam HaBa someone
who talks in Hebrew.   cool, huh?
living in the sukka on Sukklot and Yishuv Eretz Yisrael are compared,
because both mitzvot are accomplished even when we sleep

Ratza HKBH l'zakot et Yisrael , l'fichach hirba lahem Tora UMitzvot.
The list of things we do right, even unconsciously, is sooooooo much
longer than the  list of things we do wrong

the same is true for the person you see over there, who might look to
you to not be doing things according to Torah, but what s/he does that
we don't see.....  S/he is stil Jewish, still has a Jewish home...
They may  have a different psak (70 panim la'torah), or they really
might have trouble with a specific mitzva or two.

and , yes, the same is true for the Jewish State.  It might not be
perfect, there may even be some people in positions of power who feel
anti Torah .
But the things they do right, whether it is providing shofarot and
arba minim to soldiers out in nowheresland , using the Jewish date on
all official documents, speaking in Hebrew , using only kosher
ingredients on MasterChef, building shuls, Jewish schools and mikvaot,
planting trees in Eretz HaKodesh, giving national awards to Rabbanim
for their research into halacha, runnin gkollelim and hidonei tanach
in prisons... all this makes it a Jewish State , as opposed to any
other country in the world, and as opposed to what was here from the
hurban till 5th Iyar 5708.

Remember, as we judge others, we will be judged.
If we can look at someone and see all the mitzvot they DO keep, and be
happy to have them as a neighbour from whom we can learn,
if we can look at the  big picture and see how much good there really is,
then BEH OUR mitzvot will also be seen through all teh muck.

(obviously, this does not justify allowing criminals to run free-
SOMEONE has to learn in those prison kollelim!)