He Didn't Want to be a Hypocrite

 


About 15 years ago, I was visiting offices on a Friday afternoon (as I still do) to put on tefillin with people.  I stumbled into an office and after ascertaining that the fellow was Jewish, offered to put on tefillin, which he declined.  His excuse was that he doesn't want to be a hypocrite.  "With all the bad things I've done in my life, how could  I do this religious thing?  It's just not me." 

He seems to have a valid point.  However, as we learned this past week in JLI, we have two souls: (1) G-dly soul which is selfless and totally aligned with G-d's will, and an (2) Animal soul, which is self oriented.  Whenever you do something good, don't question it's authenticity.  It's coming from your G-dly soul and is 100% legit.  The voice inside trying to convince out of doing good things on the basis of authenticity is called "impostor syndrome" and should be sent out the window. 

May we all continue doing good things until we are totally in control and living our lives 100% according to our G-dly soul.

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