Does your tattoo bother you? Powerful message you need to hear - Rabbi Alon Anava

okay in the beginning it bothered me a little bit because I was carrying a tattoo on me but when I became religious I went to a rabbi a big Rabb and I told him you know I have tattoos what should I do so don't mean just leave it don't worry about it some rabbis allow you to take him off some rabbis will say no you you the same way you're not allowed to put it on you're not allowed to cut it off so that specific rabbis I want to tell me don't actually don't do anything with it now for me myself I can't say I like them but I see much more positive than negative so I go sometimes I travel I go to like a mikvah and I look like this suddenly I take my clothes off everybody's like they just see this they know exactly where I came from and some places I go I speak to a lot of youth and people are you know religious people boys that were girls that win away from religion you know just the fact that I just need to pick up my shirt and they see a big tattoo it's like psychologically they're like oh okay so he's a cool guy he's a cool rabbi he has tattoos he is a person I can speak to him I try so many places that I went that the truth did good rather than bad you know a lot of people told me oh yeah you look at it reminds you where you came from I don't really need to be reminded where I came from but personally I don't know it does at some point bother me I would rather not have it but I'm definitely not gonna go and remove them now it's expensive painful and all the rest of things that come with it besides that they're half that I went to told me don't touch it so he told me not to touch it I do not touch it I don't know I don't hide anything from my kids I don't hide anything from my kids they know everything when they were young I told him that I was playing with markers and my mother told me not to play with it and not to color myself and I didn't listen to her now I'm stuck with it and I can't take it off and when they go like this I'm like pretending like it hurts me so there's a good lesson to learn in there but my kids are already that at least the older ones they know or they know my story so you know I go to their school oh yeah we heard you died all the kids so so you know in anything negative you can turn it into something positive and sit teach something good so my kids are fine no my kids are not the problem but personally me I I don't I I um I don't know if it sounds the wrong way it's a I'm above it I don't care I actually I actually kinda in a weird way like it no I would say you know we right now but that's specific me because because when I go to a lot of places people kind of like they it's like a proof that you can go very far away and as far as the ways you are you can still go back and I have so many stories with attitudes like one time I was in the McRae and this guy walks up in front of me and he was in religious and he's looking at me like shocked and he's looking at my tattoo looking at me no committed to looking in me then he goes away and after five minutes he comes back and he tells me unknown and I tell ya he's like remembered me like no I'm sorry anyway so he tells me oh I remember you from them and he looks at the two he's like you know what I didn't even remember your face I would never recognize your face I remember the tattoo and he tells me I can't believe it you didn't Yuva you are like the most wildest person like you're they're like the last one on the list that I would think that they'd show up later on I spoke with the guy who invited him for Shabbat that the guy who invited him for Shabbat told him oh I work with him in the same place for a year I'm convincing him to come to Shabbat he finally agreed it took me hours to convince him to come to the microwave and he literally I think came for Shabbat to shut me up so I can finally leave him alone and he told me that when he saw you you changed he was that he couldn't believe they're all so modest and I can't believe this guy did show I cannot believe he only just by seeing you that you did you are it totally affected him so so sometimes the tattoos do a lot of good things so if you have if you're asking it because you don't have a tattoo then then ignore it when you do tuber is also ignoring things huh so if it's not too big and you can go to a rabbi and I get permission and remove it so look I once went to a mikvah not too long ago and there was a guy there covered with tattoos and worst of all here he had a huge cross and on the cross to come the one who comes on the cross here huge and and I was like okay I feel like like a good boy like this guy's walking with a cross on his on his body like this big so I never told up to see what he did but I know another guy who was also covered with tattoos and one tattoo was half his back like with a naked woman a very not and sneeze picture and he that party removed all the rest he left I think he had some letters on him Hebrew letters some of them he removed but the best is to even though it's hard just ignore it just you know you don't care if somebody would look at me and judge me that's his problem not my problem that I don't care if somebody looks at me and says oh look you know Europe probably like this and like that because I know inside of me what I'm what I'm doing I know inside of me the truth I know what I'm going through I know what I know what I know and if somebody looks at me and tells me or you were such a wicked person and you have tattoos I mean that's what you want to think that's his problem that's somebody else's problem I don't let anybody I don't care people judge me a good or bad that's their problem if somebody judges me wrong they have to deal with their issue the thing is that sometimes you know they're one of the reasons why I see good in the tattoo cuz every time that you go through some type of an embarrassment or you would feel judged the wrong way or whatever it's another type of like removing the sin of your soul every time that you feel you know the Torah even tells us when somebody comes in and insults you or or embarrass you in front of a lot of people be so thankful because he just took five tons of sins and removed it the more the more you get embarrassed and and humiliated in this world it's good here it's bad for the soul it's like it is huge cleansing select cleansing process so every time that you feel embarrassed from something just know that a shame just filled off another strong layer you know how the women they used to wax your legs once and like and don't like this and pull out a bunch of hairs so every time you get embarrassed the ship is pulling off a layer of dirt from your soul so that's why I said I see good things you can see you can you can convert and transform anything that looks bad into something good so just know that it's not as they you wanna care what the boss thinks not worth somebody else thinks so the main part is to make sure you're making yourself happy and you're making Hashem happy if somebody else has been boyfriend whatever friend is not happy with your physical situation that's that's not that shouldn't be a problem that shouldn't be your entry like your point okay where I'm now right now okay I did something I I understand it's the wrong thing I want to do chew up right you know the main part of the chuva is not in the physical level it's more in the spiritual level now don't worry my chef is gonna come very soon and the tattoo is just gonna get off dissolve that's what that I've told me don't worry definitely my chef is coming that the tooth will just melt off your body what is all yeah either way this is all dissolving a thing it becomes part of you I think it just will fly off your body you know it's good sometimes sometimes when when you when you experienced something like that it actually kind of puts you by met on the same place and on the other hand you know one of another reasons why I like the tattoos because a lot of times I find myself in a level that I say oh you know I could be so much more religious and I could be so much more than and I kind of like I'm hard at myself III didn't do this and I didn't do that and I could have done this and you know I checked my text when I was downing you know what I would look for something that I'm like I'm so it's so bad what I did but on the other hand I can turn around and be like wait a minute who thirteen years ago where I was like 13 years ago now I'm like if if I would look back I see how high I climbed and you climb a mountain you don't look back because you're afraid to fall but when you reach the top like wow I candle this so sometimes in life when you look at something from the past it's also is there to make you realize wait a minute I did such a huge change look where I was two years ago now I'm doing the ABCD two years ago where I was two years ago I could sometimes I look back and look at either my tattoos or I look at pictures I have tons of pictures from my past and I look at this man and I'm like this man in the picture on Friday night was in parties and whatever they used to do where am I now Friday night Wow sitting in a table I have 20 guests in my table kids around me you know you you get a reality check you're like look is where this is where this is where I am because the natural part of a person is to look at yourself and be hard on yourself especially person people that have a lot of ambitions they like I could have done much better you come home from a situation my god why didn't I say this why didn't I act that so people tend to be very hard on themselves but you need some type of a reminder saying no no you're very good actually you were look where you are now I wouldn't I wouldn't give it much of an importance and if it's here don't look down if it's here don't look there look forward the cloud is good in our life to constantly look for it and mainly care what a shame things not want somebody else thinks no you don't have to make anybody happy you should especially your parents but your main thing is there is if he's happy the mission that tells us when when the I don't know how to translate it even when the the higher the Supreme Court let's call it when they're happy with you then people here are happy with you and on the other way around the it works the same somebody here is not so happy with you not because you have a tattoo because you did something so upstair they're not a hundred percent happy so you have to make sure that you're making the the higher level authorities happy then by default everybody he will be fine but don't worry my chef is coming very soon there you'll wake up in the morning you look wherever it is and he'll be like and well don't worry it's not so bad I wish I wish the my tattoos were the bad things I did huh yeah I that that would be that what I need to do to her but this is nothing compared to what I had to do to her I look nice not so nice but you know a shame does everything is they everything that he I be will believe you know that right before what happened to me I that the two that I had I made myself going back to the tattoos and I was planning or getting the exact same one here just a different design in the same shape and another one on the back and like I was about to do this huge tattoo over my back neck hands it was supposed to be this huge tattoo I was saving money I was like drawing the design for months and I was excited and I was I it's gonna be the best actor in the world and then happened what happened and I was and I pulled out one a couple months later one of my sketch and I was like can you imagine if I would do that so sometimes the Shem turns things around that even when he gives you to do a sin is there's a reason for that you know a lot of people say you know he put Adam and Eve in grenade then why did he had to put in a hush that the snake there to convince him to say there's a reason for that because the shame won't stick to ever get elevated to a level of about Schumer says ending mob a maqam Siddiqui Pilate revoir James and Hakeem grew a minimum a holy Ramadan we're about to burst and a complete Saudi cannot stand so the level of about to rise the highest level one can get so far Shem pushes you to a point that you had to do a sin instead of being sad you have to be grateful because now I have the opportunity to the Torah and if you do true with the right way you elevate you the level to the highest level you can reach to a point that you look back like robbed of a chef I'm happy I grew up not religious because how we grow up religious I would probably go for dinner if I was rebellious secular I would be super rich rebellious religious so I'm happy I grew up twenty-eight years not religious now I tasted the real taste now I can really do my Chula so don't don't look back at your past is a negative thing rather look back at the past as a jumping board to that to a higher level and whatever came with it you'll transform so since get strenght for transform - merits and things on your body you know we'll get transformed do now the day I looked somebody videoed me in a class and he sent me the video and it was so close to me I was like oh you see my holes I had earrings you see the holes I have earrings in my ear and I was like oh I didn't notice you actually see it I forgot that I had piercings and earrings and I was like probably people look at me and they see the actual holes and I was like oh that's kind of embarrassing and then I was like no it's actually kind of not embarrassing because it validates this is where I was and if I was able to go from here to here you know I can tap my back and say color covered I did something so you can say the same thing I was here now here gonna come on I I it's not easy climbing from one spot to the other spot don't know I just continue doing what you need to do to climb to a higher level and everything everything will fall into place the right way no worry just do the will of a Shem