The Second Look | Rabbi Shlomo Farhi

The greatest Navi or prophet that ever lived was Moshe Rabeinu. And I want to take a look at the moment when Hashem decided that Moshe was going to be the one. Moshe was walking down the road and there's this incredible sight, a burning bush. It's being consumed by fire, but nothing is happening to the leaves. And Hashem saw that Moshe turned to look, and as Moshe turned to look at this incredible sight, Hashem says: Moshe, Moshe, you're the one. You're going to be the one that's going to take the Jews out of Mitzrayim. You're going to be the one that's going to receive the Torah on Har Sinai. You're going to be the Navi to end all Navis. Why? What was so special about what Moshe did? And I’d like to point out one thing. It's not that Moshe looked. I would look, you would look. You see a burning bush, it's not being consumed. You’d think to yourself, you're on Candid Camera. This is some sort of prank. Everyone would look. But what's interesting about Moshe is not that he looks, it's that he looks again. You see, because if you just saw a bush on fire, all you'd see is a bush on fire. In order to notice that it wasn't being consumed, you’d need to not just look, but look again. And notice that from the first moment when you saw it to the second moment when you saw it, nothing has changed in the bush itself. What made Moshe great was not that he looked, but that he looked again. If that's true when it comes to positive things, it must also be true when it comes to things that are not so positive. You know, sometimes it's not a person's fault that they've seen something that they shouldn't have. You're just walking down the street, minding your own business, and there's a billboard, there's a person, there's a situation, there's nothing you could have done to have helped that situation. But, my friends, you know what the difference is between an ordinary person and Moshe? It's in the choice over whether to look again. Whether to keep focusing, whether to keep seeing something. In that moment, it goes from an accident to a choice. Anyone could have an accident happen to them, but we all have the choice, once we've had that situation come into effect, whether we stay in that situation or we check out. Hashem should bless us with the blessings of Moshe after having chosen correctly whether or not something was worth a second look.