Pause for a Moment | Rabbi Avi Slansky

Driving down the Palisades one morning, traffic is going as normal, and all of a sudden, a car swerves in front of me very close and then slams on his brakes, because the car in front of him slammed on his brakes. I quickly slam on my brakes, swerve a little bit to the right, and the car in front of me swerves all the way onto the shoulder, to avoid crashing into the person in front of him. I get my bearings, everything resumes as normal, and I look up and I see the car that swerved in front, that almost created a terrible accident. What he did was he swerves right back into traffic, back at a high speed, swerving in and out of traffic. And a thought occurred to me. He just saved his life. He did something silly, something inappropriate. He swerved, and then he was able to catch himself and he got onto the shoulder. Could you imagine if he would have taken that moment and realized: I just saved my life. Let me stop flying at high speed and swerving in and out of traffic. If he were to have done that, that act would have been the greatest act of his life. It would have saved him and for a long time, he would have been safe. Or... he could just go right back into traffic, right back into all the issues, and who's to know if he was the next six-car pile-up? In life, there are so many times that we make that great decision. We did a mistake, we did something wrong. We swerved in front of someone else, we went somewhere, we spoke to, we ended up in the wrong place, and we catch ourselves, and we swerve onto the side of the road. And that's amazing. But at that moment, we have to pause and we have to realize we now can make a decision. We could utilize this act of greatness that we just did, and allow it to build us and allow it to hit home and somehow take a moment of thought, so that when we're back into the busyness of life, it will be there to help us. Or... we can, unfortunately, take this incredible act that just happened, and it is amazing, but we could just dive right into the traffic, swerving back and forth, and then unfortunately, the next temptation will come, the next problem will come, and maybe the next time we won't be able to save ourselves. Let's stop on the side of the road. Realize the greatness that we have become each and every day. Internalize how each action is so amazing. And stop swerving. Slow down a little bit to allow it to make us greater, the people we really are each and every day.