What Car Do you Drive - R. Tzvi Sytner - TorahAnytime.com

A couple years ago, one of the members of my shul had a birthday, and his wife rented him a Lamborghini for the day. Of course, he spent the day wanting to let other people have the opportunity to drive it. So, he comes by my house, and he goes, "Rabbi, get in, you drive." And I get into the driver's seat, and I'm like driving so carefully and so slowly down my block to the point that like one of my neighbors sees me driving by, and he goes, "Hey, can I be the assistant rabbi?" Anyway, as as I'm I'm driving, I'm you know, I don't want to hit anything. I don't want to get any scratches. I don't want any bumps. I don't want to get it dirty. I don't want to hit a puddle. Like, I'm so careful. I thought afterwards, like, this is such a powerful lesson because in my own beat-up car at the time, like, I never drove like that. I drove regular. But with this Lamborghini, I'm so careful not to get it dirty or anything to happen to it. I realize this is really like such a powerful lesson for ourselves because if we see ourselves as like just like I'm just a beat-up junky car. Like, I just I just mess up all the time. I always do have errors. It's It is just who I am. Then, what does it matter if I keep getting dirty? What does it matter if I keep messing up? But if we see ourselves as a Lamborghini, see ourselves as something like special, then all of a sudden like we hold on a second, I can't get this thing dirty. And that's really on Yom Kippur, we keep doing that. We keep saying, "Avinu Malkeinu, Avinu Malkeinu, our Father, our King." If we say our Father, our King, what we're saying is, "If my dad's the King, that means I'm a prince. That means I'm a princess." Right? That's the statement we're making about ourselves. That means we're saying we are royalty. And if we're royalty, then we pause and say, "Hold on a second. As somebody who's royalty, what things are beneath me? What things don't belong in my life?" Think about that question as you approach Yom Yom Kippur.