The Limits of a Lemonade Stand

During the summer months, invariably at some point, I will see a kid running a lemonade stand. It is a cute spectacle to see an eight year old displaying such entrepenuership. The child has figured out how much profit he may have incurred from selling ice cold lemonade for fifty cents. People may gather around the child and express their admiration for his budding business acumen. However, if we saw a thirty eight year old man at the corner selling lemonade for fifty cents, we would not have the same admiration. Especially, if this was the adults primary way of earning a livelihood. One would expect a thirty eight year old to have a much higher level of sophistication in understanding personal finance than an eight year old. I would argue that in terms of our understanding of the fundamentals of Jewish life and living, a thirty eight year old must have a higher level of sophistication than he had as an eight year old. It might be cute to observe a young child know the song “dip the apple in the honey” on Rosh Hashanah. Parents and grandparents might be kvelling and deservedly so. However, if a thirty eight year old does not have a deeper understanding of Rosh Hashanah than he had thirty years before, that is not something to be proud about. The High Holiday season can be challenging for so many of us. One may be looking at page 252 of the Machzor/Prayer book and realizing we still have 500 pages until we get to lunch on Rosh Hashanah. We may try to distract ourselves and attempt different coping mechanisms to just get through the service. I believe that much of this attitude may stem from someone not adequately preparing and being in a good spiritual headspace in anticipation of the High Holidays. We may think we are prepared based on things we learned in Hebrew School a few decades ago. The reality is to achieve significant results in any meaningful area of life, one must prepare in advance . The month of Elul is the time period before the High Holidays to utilize properly to educate oneself in anticipation of this auspicious season. With the world teetering in so many ways, the stakes are too high to continue viewing the High Holiday season the same way we did when we operated lemonade stands. Have a Peaceful Shabbos, Rabbi Yaakov Fisch