Yesterday, I was brushing my teeth before bed. As per usual, I had toothpaste shmutz all over the corners of my mouth so I went to grab a paper towel to wipe it off. I did and afterwards I tossed it towards the garbage can in the corner. Given my terrible hand-eye coordination I missed the can, and the paper towel landed on the floor. It was then that I stopped and thought. There was a ton of other paper towels on the floor that had missed the garbage, what’s one more? I’m sure somebody else would clean them up. But I thought, what would G-d think? Surely, it was not the moral thing to do to leave that garbage on the floor. Would there be some sort of consequence for me later in life because of that one paper towel? So, I went over and picked up all of the paper towels and put them in the trashcan. Oftentimes, I find myself thinking about small things like this. About small things I know are wrong, but purposefully avoiding the easy solution. It is usually my thoughts about what would Hashem think that bring me to do the right thing.
So what does that have to do with the quote? “We must raise both the ceiling and the floor.” There are so many bigger issues in the world. Just this week Israel called up 40,000 reserve troops. There are thousands of people without homes in the world while all of us have this (CSL). Everyone is so focused on fixing these bigger issues. These ceiling issues. Not saying they aren’t important, because they are, but before we can all find a solution to the conflict in Israel or getting shelter for those in need. We need to raise our floors, the standards we hold ourselves to on a smaller scale. If everyone just took that extra step to pick up that paper towel and make sure it got into the trash can, we would be that much closer to having the capacity to deal with these issues. Before we can fix war or hunger, we need the correct state of mind.
Shabbat Shalom.
David Jevotovsky
Judaic Director
