Shoftim
What comes out and what goes in through our `gates`?
Reflection by Or HaLev teacher
Ori Levi
"Parshat Shoftim and the beginning of the month of Elul communicate in an inspiring way.
As we enter the month of Elul, a month of soul-searching and contemplation of the year that was, and preparing for the year that will come upon us for the better, we are required to ask, 'where are we in the world??’ Where has this year taken us?
At the beginning of the parasha it is said,
`You shall appoint magistrates and officials for your tribes, in all your gates that your God is giving you.` (Deutoronomy 16:18).
An inner reading of the verse, inspired by the concept that `man is a small world` - האדם הוא עולם קטן, indicates the seven gates of each person - the gateways to our seven senses - eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth.
Through them the connection between the outside and the inside is established, through these gates we actually absorb the world.
There is always far more happening around us than we are able to process with our senses. The question arises, how can a person filter, differentiate and choose in a way that will benefit him?
How will we serve both as the magistrate who determines the law and as the official who guards it? We have the holy Torah to lead our way, but what happens when we are required to decide what is good and right in matters that are not written in the Torah?
How would a person adapt such self-government to become his own master?
How do we know how to distinguish between excessive self-judgment that is distressing and painful for us and soul-searching and working on the virtues that advance us?
Perhaps one way to do so, is just to guard our senses, to watch them without judgment. What comes out and what goes in through each `gate`? Where do our eyes run around? What do we hear inside and outside, where does the smell lead? What comes in and out of our mouths?
When we do this, we are more present in the moment, our compass is not diverted in other directions. Then, the conscience is awake, and perhaps it is more possible for us to know where to lead ourselves."