Beyond the Ego: Seeing Ourselves Clearly - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

It always amazes me how we think that nobody sees who we really are. We think that we can conceal our character flaws and blemishes. [music] But if we could really see ourselves through other people's eyes, we'd probably turn a deep shade of red. >> [music] >> It says in Parshas Naso, "This is the law of the Nazirite on the day his nazirite is complete, he shall bring him to the entrance of the tent of meeting." Now, Rashi explains that the word him really in this [music] verse means himself. The question remains though, why didn't the Torah just write himself [music] and not him? A Nazirite is a man or a woman who adopts voluntary restrictions to elevate themselves. >> [music] >> The nazirite was a kind of therapy to remove excesses, indulgence, and self-centeredness. If this procedure was successful, then the nazirite was able to see himself exactly the way everybody else saw him, without any of the ego's self-serving bribery. Thus, the verse tells us that if the nazirite brings him, if through this extra discipline, he or she manages [music] to see themselves as him or her, as the way the world sees them, then his nazirite was complete. [music] The purpose of his abstinence was successful. He and his shadow [music] are one.