Deep Thoughts from a Little Mind

You know when you meet your friend's family and love them so much that you have to think about you who like more, your friend or her siblings?

Yeah, this relationship is sort of like that.

This is why my friend sends me emails of antics of her younger siblings, who I informally adopted as my own. And she knew I would want to hear what her nine year old brother came up with on his own (!) on last week's parsha.

He said: "Why does it say 'these are Noach's offspring' and then goes on to say whats a tzaddik Noach was before talking about his kids? Noach's children were very different from each other. Shem was a tzaddik, Cham wasn't so, and same with Yafes. But their father was a tzaddik. This goes to show that even if your grandfather was Moshe Rabbeinu it is still up to you what you become!"

First of all, I think that is incredibly deep for a nine year old to think of on his own. Secondly, I had an almost identical conversation with my sister over Shabbos. We were discussing yichus and how it's really an add-on. If you yourself do not live up to the expectations of a Jew, then it doesn't actually matter where you came from. What is far more important is where we are headed.

In Judaism it doesn't matter how high you are on the "spiritual barometer". It only matters how much you grew. You could be on the hundredth level, but if you born and raised on the ninety-ninth, that's not exactly what we call spiritual achievement. And the reverse also holds true: if someone is holding at the twentieth level but started off on the second, he should look at him for inspiration.

Simply put, we have the same chance of attaining olam haba as Rav Chaim does. And he grew up with the Steipler as his father! Because it only matters if we grow and fulfill our life's mission.

There are two types of Jews in this world: those are growing and those who are not. The kind of Jew we are supposed to be is the growing kind, regardless if your parents are the leaders of klal yisrael, garbage men or religious at all. It's our job to stretch a little higher than where we are now and grow a little more, become a little greater than the person we were yesterday. Our personal spiritual growth is in our own hands.

"What is the definition of a good Jew? One who is trying to become a better Jew." -Huna Friedland