It's Still a Jail...

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches us that a person is where his or her thoughts are. When I used to be the spiritual rehab director of an Israeli prison, I would encourage the inmates and tell them that concrete, iron bars, and barbed wire can jail a body, but they can't jail a soul. When you think about Hashem or when you talk to Him, your soul is free. Since your soul is the real you, you are free too. On the other hand, if you're driving a new Mercedes, but your thoughts center around peer pressure, car payments, money, career, and keeping up with the Jones's, you're worse-off than an prisoner with a ball and chain. Any melancholy canary will tell you that a gold-plated cage is still a cage.

The Ten Days of Repentance - the period between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - is a wonderful time to rethink our priorities. We often discover that we're incarcerated in an unlocked cell of lust and bodily appetites. With teshuva and a resolve to do better, we can walk right out of that jail. Gmar chatima Tova!