I heard a beautiful insight from my wife that I wanted to share with you.

At the
end of this week’s Parsha, the Torah describes how after suffering through seven
devastating makot, Pharoah was finally willing to recognize his mistake and proc
laim: ‫ – םיעשרה ימעו ינאו קידצה ’ה‬Hashem is the Righteous One and I and my nation are the w
shocked at how Pharoah so easily loses his moment of clarity and then returns t
o his absurd resolve to refuse freedom to Am Yisrael.
I have often heard the common refrain that if only G-d would make miracles as He
did in Yetziyat Mitzrayim then I would be convinced of the existence of G-d.
Yet, we see time and again that miracleshave at best a fleeting impression on t
hose who witness them. According to the Rambam, faith attained through intellect
ual inquiry is a far more stable belief than that attained through miracles. Ev
en the awe-inspiring event of Matan Torah, where Am Yisrael experienced Divine r
evelation, failed to bring about permanent spiritual modifications. Only weeks
later, Am Yisrael committed Chet HaEgel.
Pharoah’s challenge is our challenge. We are shocked by Pharoah’s lack of resolve
but we must ask ourselves, do we not have the same weakness? We’ve all experience
d moments of great spiritual clarity and inspiration. The question we all ask i
s how to maintain and perpetuate those times? How do we avoid the rapid loss of
clarity experienced by Pharoah?
Many times people will hear an amazing shiur or have a profoundly intense tefill
ah and they resolve that this will be an impetus for change in their life, but i
t fails to actualize. Just like Pharoah, who lost his resolve as soon as the im
mediate threat to his safety was gone, we also fail to follow through. How many
times have we made commitments to learn or take on a halacha or a new level of
avodat Hashem, but we stop when the time comes to really change and grow?
Professor Nechama Lebowitz wrote that inspiration or miracles can “only impress th
e one who is psychologically prepared to be convinced.” How then should we prepar
e ourselves to make those moments of inspiration and clarity meaningful and last
ing?
Rabbi Akiva Tatz in Living Inspired, teaches that this is the pattern of life.
We have short-lived inspiration followed by the struggle to relive and build on
that inspiration. The Rambam describes this pattern with a mashal of someone lo
st in the forest on a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, lightening strikes and f
or a split second, the forest is illuminated and the path is clear. Then the da
rkness returns and he must find his way using his memory from that millisecond t
o guide him.
Our lives are made up of many bursts of inspiration and revelation -from Shabbat
and Yom Kippur to watching a beautiful sunset and experiencing love. The phase
of euphoria needs to be followed by real change and growth for the experience t
o be long-lasting. Real growth only comes about when you work and struggle to m
ake the spirituality and excitement of the moment into something concrete. Rabb
i Tatz compares the moments of inspiration to romance and the work and struggle
that follows to love. Romance fades but with a lot of effort it can graduate to
love and that is an even deeper connection than romance.
Initial inspiration is only the impetus to a deeper inspiration. It takes disci
pline and determination, but when successful you can achieve real spiritual deve
lopment. When despair sets in and that inspiration that you felt seems far away
, reach deep into your consciousness to recall that flash of light to help you f
ind the path again. Your year in Israel was that flash of light. The key to ‘liv
ing inspired’ is to keep reaching back to those inspirational moments and build on
them by making real changes and furthering your religious growth.
Shabbat Shalom!