Accept for yourself a mentor! - Yisro

A basketball player was underperforming. He had tried to challenge himself and practice his form but was unable to improve. At the next game, however, he had outperformed his teammates by adopting a style far different than he had previously used. This change came about only after his coaches’ suggestion.

In this week’s parsha, Yisro came to the aid of Moshe to give him advice about the legal system. If Moshe did not heed the advice of Yisro about the court system, it would continue to be dysfunctional. However, since he listened to Yisro, the court system got better and ran more efficiently.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe talked many times about the need to appoint an advisor for yourself who can help direct you based on halacha, his torah knowledge and your experiences. This person can be referred to as a mashpia, or Mashgiach ruchani, based on your path of life.

The lesson I took from these two ideas was as follows. There is always someone who went through an experience before you who has better knowledge of the entirety of the experience than you. Sometimes it may not be that experience, it could be something similar, but the job of this person is to take all their experience and advise you how to get better. With this in mind, with the help of others, we can achieve the last few things that need to be fixed in order to take us from this golus with the coming of Moshiach!

Good Shabbos

All the best Avroham Y Ross