Anything to Distract
When you’re driving down the highway, it’s easy to get distracted by things you see along the way. It may be an interesting billboard, a beautiful view, horses (beep-beep), or even the vanity license plate of another car. You could be focusing on it trying to figure out what clever spellings they’ve come up with and what message they’re trying to convey, and then, at some point, you remember that you’re driving a vehicle weighing thousands of pounds, hurtling through space at 60 miles an hour, and that you should probably pay attention.
People play music or talk on the phone to take their mind off of the drive, too. It removes some of the monotony of the white lines passing and of the sometimes seemingly identical scenery around you. It makes the time go by more quickly, and helps the trip go by faster.
You may occasionally find yourself drifting over a line and then righting yourself. It happens, but usually it isn’t too serious. If you’re in bumper-to-bumper traffic it’s a bigger problem, and you may have to lower the music or podcast a bit, so you can focus on your drive a bit more.
Attention!
Then there are times when you don’t want to listen to anything else; when even passengers talking in the car is too much of a distraction. It could be when you’re driving in an unfamiliar area, and looking for where you need to make a turn or take an exit. Maybe it’s when it’s raining heavily and your vision is diminished and you have to be on alert for any obstacles or erratic drivers.
When that happens, suddenly, you want to FOCUS! You don’t want any distractions and you don’t want to hear anything else. You are single-mindedly making your way through the barriers, keenly aware that any veering to either side could lead to catastrophic results. At high speed, the slightest bump of the wall could dent your car, or even send it flying and spinning out of control, smashed and broken, not to mention what could chas v’shalom (God forbid) happen to the people in the car.
At those moments, we are aware of the gravity of taking our mind off the road or our purpose. We maintain control very carefully and diligently because we realize what’s at stake, and we will do whatever we can to minimize distractions. Music goes off, talking stops, and if anyone calls us, we ignore or tell them we’ll call them back. This is serious business, and I won’t risk playing games with my life for a nice chat.
Between the Straits
There’s another time, too, and this is what brought the concept home to me. Sometimes you’re driving and the road narrows. Maybe there is construction and a lane is closed. Even more, sometimes you won’t have a shoulder on the highway, and you will end up driving for some time on a single lane with concrete barriers on each side.
Well, as the song says, “the whole world is a narrow bridge.” When we go through life, it’s easy to get distracted and pay attention to the things going on around us. They may take our focus off of what we should be thinking about, and we run the risk of getting pretty banged up. The problem is that we don’t always see the concrete barriers on either side. It looks to us like green pastures as far as the eye can see. In such situations, it’s harder to maintain the focus.
Then, we have times when the road comes into clearer focus, and we find our concentration heightened. It may be something like the days of the Three Weeks before Tisha B’Av, which is literally referred to as “between the straits,” or it may be the week between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur when we are more keenly aware of what’s at stake.
Reminders to Focus
There may also be times of challenge and tragedy. Illnesses and personal woes can bring us back to the present and remind us what’s important. National suffering, like the October 7 attack, hostages kidnapped, soldiers dying, and general anti-Semitism, can remind us that we have a mission on this planet, and it’s not about sight-seeing. These aren’t bad things. The concrete barriers which seem to be closing in, are actually there for our safety, preventing us from drifting off and perhaps getting hurt or lost. Sometimes we need stronger reminders for our own good, and we need to recognize them as that. We should appreciate them instead of dreading them, because in the end, the point is to keep our eyes on the road so we arrive safely where we want to go.
By Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz
Rabbi Gewirtz (Operation Inspiration) welcomes comments and feedback. Write to him at info@JewishSpeechWriter.com to share your thoughts. You never know when you may be the lamp that enlightens someone else.
