Flying in Seat 4D | Rabbi David Haber

A little while ago, I was asked to come out to Los Angeles to speak on behalf of one of the great Mosdot of Torah in Klal Yisrael. I readily agreed. They booked me a ticket, and they were gracious enough to book me a business class flight. I flew there uneventfully, beautiful, and Baruch Hashem, the trip was a tremendous success. On my flight back, it was a red-eye. I sat down in my seat, seat 4D. I settled in, ate a little dinner, learned a little bit, and then hit the button to lie flat, to go to sleep overnight and then wake up the next morning in New York. As I hit the button, no reaction. The seat didn't move and it certainly didn't recline. And so I walked up to the stewardess and I said: Ma'am, there seems to be an issue. My seat's not working. Perhaps you can help me. She said: Where are you sitting? I said: I'm sitting in seat 4D. The moment I said that, her eyes went wide and she said: Oh, they didn't tell you at the gate? Sir, seat 4D is the only seat on this entire plane that doesn't work. And so I sulked back to my seat, looked to my right as the man next to me was in his seventh dream. I looked next to me to my left, and the person there was also out cold. And then I was sitting there, uncomfortable, trying to find a place to lean my head for the next five hours of this flight. In this journey of life, many of us feel that we're sitting in seat 4D. Society to our right, they don't care about the issues we care about, they’re sleeping pretty. Society to our left, they’re not worried about Shmiras Einayim. But we are trying as best we can to uncomfortably find the right position to place ourselves, to make sure that we somehow pass this journey that's ahead of us. But there’s a thought to keep in mind during that flight. The greatest story of self-sacrifice and commitment in the history of our people is that of Akedat Yitzchak. But how did it get its name, Akedat Yitzchak? The answer is the pasuk tells us that Avraham Avinu bound his son Yitzchak by the feet and by the hands, and that restrained him from any movement. But I don't understand. The most significant part of that story is not the binding of Yitzchak. The most significant part of that story is he almost died and his father almost sacrificed him. So why give it that name? The answer comes from the Midrash. The Midrash tells us that Yitzchak Avinu himself requested that his feet and his hands be bound, because he knew there was a possibility that he would move and that he would fight back. And because of that, Akedat Yitzchak will forever be known as The greatness of that story is that a person knew that it was going to be difficult for them to pass this test, and they tried with all their might to be restrained, to the degree that they asked to be restrained. That's our story, too. You see, it's difficult and the journey's not easy, and we're trying uncomfortably to make sure that we pass this journey as best as we could. But that's our story. What's going to make us us is our attempt at restraint. When we try, when we push, when we make the effort to become more of a Vayimaen Jew, that becomes our story. Have a safe flight.