[ IT IS NOT ALTITUDE BUT ADDITUDE THAT
COUNTS: ]     

             Picture the
following typical scene as you enter the large airport terminal that is packed
with people from all different backgrounds: Upon hearing the loud speakers calling
out the latest flights schedules, everyone listens carefully to hear of any
updates regarding their flights and take off times.                     

           After checking in your suitcases, with
passports & tickets in hand, you enter the security sector where every
passenger passes through a metal detector one at a time – shoeless, hatless and
coatless beginning to feel slightly intimidated. (If, you are one of the
“lucky” ones, you may also “win” a turn to pass in front of a full body scan
x-ray at no additional charge, which only adds to the aggravation).

               After a final
check of tickets and boarding passes at the gate, you enter the plane and are directed
to your seat, which you will be reminded is where you should stay throughout
the flight.                   

            Finally upon the
airplanes landing the passengers in unison applaud briefly and quickly head
towards the planes exists.

              Since everything
that exists in the physical realm has a spiritual counterpart, perhaps we can
cull some interesting connections (or disconnections as it be) between plane
flights and our spiritual preparations and “flight” which spans the days from Rosh
Hashanah through Simchas Torah.

           On Rosh Hashanah we
also listen intently but not to the loud speaker at the airport but in the Bait
Kenesset we listen with rapt attention the kol shofar beckoning us to the
spiritual “gate” known as the Shary Shamaim.

               On Yom Kippur we also enter the “security
sector” but instead of passports and tickets in hand, we each have our makzors
filled with our hopeful prayers in hand.

             On Yom Kippur we
also remove our shoes and take off our outer weekday garments but instead of
passing through a metal detector and x-ray machine to see if we are hiding
something with bad intentions, we wear white garments of spiritual transparency
that is an unspoken tefillah that we hope that all our thoughts and actions are
seen to be pure and white as snow.   

             On Succos we also sit, but instead on sitting
on a plane travelling horizontally from one physical place to another; we are sitting
– “traveling” within the succah vertically through the supernal universes.

            On Succos we are also
breathing the air around us, but the passengers on the plane are breathing re-circulated
air, while we throughout our seven day spiritual “flight” in the succah are
breathing in the joyous “atmosphere”  of
this Divine mitzvah. 

               Then on Simchas
Torah we also clap our hands, but instead of clapping that the flight is over
so that everyone can get off  the plane
as quick as possible, we spend as much of the day of Simcahs Torah as we can clapping,
singing and dancing joyously hoping to draw this month of Tishri treasury of  holidays, that are filled with inspiration, into
the rest of the year. (May this year we all be blessed with a one way ticket to
the final Geula)                    Shana
Tova

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