Perashat Lekh Lekha 5779

Perashat Lekh Lekha 5779

Friday, October 19, 2018 Author: Rabbi Shlomo Farhi

54 years is a long time. 

Just ask any Rangers fan. We went 54 years before winning another Stanley Cup in '94. I'll never forget Nick Kypreos hoisting the Cup like it was Simhat Torah on ice. As he skated by the roaring crowd a historic photo was snapped, the trophy raised to the heavens under a sign that simply read, "Now I can die in peace!". 

54 years.

It takes a lot to win a championship. It's not something you can just dowhenever you like. It's not as if there is one small problem you could just fix, and that would be that. Because surely something like that wouldn't take 54 years, right?

Wrong.
Just ask the state of New York. Earlier this month Governor Cuomo signed a bill to fix a 54 year old problem. 

The problem? You may have seen it on a drive down to Deal. After all, you've had plenty of time to notice it. I'm talking about the sign above the Verrazzano Bridge. It's spelled with one z. The 16th-century Italian explorer who sailed into New York Harbor, whose name the bridge was meant to commemorate, actually spelled his name with two z's. So 54 years after the bridge was opened with the misspelled name we finally got around to fixing it. 

One letter is not a big deal to us, but to many people, especially Italians, that careless one-letter mistake made all the difference in the world. It meant we didn't care enough to get it right.

This week we read about two people whose names were also changed by one letter, and it made all the difference in the world.

Abraham went from a person named for being a father (Ab) to the locals in Aram (ram), to someone charged with being a father (Ab) figure and iconoclast to Hamon Goyim, all the world's people (Ham). Sarai went from being My Princess to Sarah, simply Princess. She became a royal role model and important figure for the entire world. That shift from local or familial focus and role to a global one, made them a couple who could conceive the Jewish people, a people who were to become, like Sarah and Abraham, a Light unto all THE NATIONS.

One letter, a world of difference.
I have been thinking about this one letter. Heh. Heh. Z. 

Sometimes, a mistake that seems so small to us, may be of enormous importance to someone else. It is crucial that we own our mistakes. Often the worst part of someone's insensitivity is that when it is finally pointed out, the offender can say, "Get over it. It's not a big deal!". Ouch. If we have hurt someone, the least we can do is try and see it through their eyes. So let us think; what have we done to upset someone? See it through their eyes, apologize, then make it right today. Or you could wait 54 years, but why would you?

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi hlomo Farhi
Just kidding.