OPERATION INSPIRATION

Operation Inspiration

Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz

Sticktoitiveness

Before you go off about how I’ve made up this word for my title, let me assure you that it is a real word. Though spellings may change, and sometimes it’s better known in one of its hyphenated forms like stick-to-it-iveness or even stick-to-itiveness, the idea is that someone or something has a dogged perseverance to an act or ideal. If you stick to your goals, and you push yourself to do so, you’re exhibiting stick-to-it-iveness.

Recently I had occasion to learn something about this fine attribute from something we’d all consider sticky – wide paper tape. I was in a shul that had bought a safe to hold its sefer Torah (making it a “Safer” Torah, I guess?) Since the safe had an electric keypad which could not be used on Shabbos, they had removed that pad, which turns out to have been a faceplate, behind which was a key mechanism. Now they could lock and unlock it on Shabbos with no problems.

As the keypad was still connected by a flat wire connection and could not be entirely removed, whoever had done this was careful to tape the keypad to the front of the safe with a large piece of blue paper tape, so it sat next to the now uncovered keyhole, securely mounted if they ever wanted to reconnect it.

At least that’s how it was supposed to work. Instead, the next day, when I went back, I noted that the keypad had wrested itself free from the tape, presumably with a little help from gravity, and it was now dangling just above the handle of the safe, where the inch-wide flat wire ended.

It made me think about the intent and possibilities, and of course, about life in general. What lesson could I learn from this situation? Why I had I seen it? It seemed to me to be a lesson in stick-to-it-iveness. You see, although the tape seemed strong, and it was well-applied, the forces of gravity were working against the tape. While the tape was trying to keep the hardware connected to the safe, the keypad was continually pulled down to earth by gravity. That meant the tape had to work harder to do its job.

Had the person secured it to the safe at the end of its electrical tether, where it was prevented from falling further by the wire connecting it to the internal workings of the safe, the tape would have had less pressure placed upon it and it would likely have been able to remain stuck.

While I’m sure this is all quite exciting and riveting to you, you may be wondering where I’m going with this. Well, I’ll keep you in suspense no longer. (Ironic as that is.)

What occurred to me was that we often try to do things of a spiritual nature, and we try to stick to a certain level. However, we constantly get dragged down and our plans to remain securely at that level come undone.

If we are to be successful, I realized, we need to work with what we’ve got to ensure that the downward pressure is minimized or at least mitigated. Just as the safe’s keypad fell only as far as the wire allowed it to, and had the tape been secured at THAT level it would have worked, we should be looking to find our tether and boundaries and starting from there.

Rav Dessler refers to this as our “nekudas habechira,” our point of free will. [Michtav M’Eliyahu Vol. 1, Page 113.] He says that a man has one point in his avodas Hashem where he has to fight his yetzer hara, while at lower points there will be no struggle, for these levels have already been conquered, and he will easily win those battles of will, whereas higher levels are not yet within his grasp. Some things are clearly right, while some things he doesn’t yet realize are wrong.

For example, someone who is a “frum Jew” will have no problem keeping kosher but may sometimes be tempted to rely on unreliable kosher supervision, while somebody farther away from religious practice will have to struggle with whether to eat bacon (which is non-kosher regardless of supervision). 

Each time one chooses to do good over evil, his nekudas habechira is raised a bit higher, and that choice will be easier for him to make in the future. Consequently, says Rav Dessler, Man’s task in life is to consistently raise his nekudas habechira, thus growing ever greater in his service of Hashem.

What I surmised in looking at the safe was that the attempt was made to secure the keypad higher than its “nekudas habechira,” to use the term colloquially. They tried to connect it at a place where gravity would continually have pulled on it. Had they instead neatly secured it where the wire ended, it would have remained cleanly attached to the safe’s front, instead of dangling in a jumbled mess.

If we each are honest with ourselves about where we are holding, we can then attach ourselves to Hashem, the Torah, and talmidei chachamim at that level, as we are. Through that connection, we can grow to the next level. Trying to be someone we are currently not can be a great thing but will not be as successful if we are continually tugged away from that goal.

The best way to stick to something is to find out where we stand, and then try to ensure we don’t falter from that. Then we can begin to climb the rungs one at a time, fighting off the forces pulling us earthward. In that way, we can stick to the growth we’re looking for, and we’ll find our success safely locked in. 

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