Did you know that airplanes and ocean vessels spend about 80% of their time correcting their course?
Natural elements like winds, currents, and waves continually push them off course requiring repeated corrective steering measures.
We too are no different. The ill influences of family, friends, and workmates push and pull us off course like a ship at sea or a jetliner in the air. (Behavior is contagious.)
During these days it’s crucial to do an honest assessment of one’s desires and behaviors and lay a course for the life we should want to have — a life of Divine service.
It’s not all about ticking the boxes of mitzvot done throughout the day because “Hashem wants our heart”.
He wants us to desire to give, to learn, to love others like ourselves! He wants us to be preoccupied with making others happy, and with finding ways to be spiritually close to Him.
He wants us to change from the inside in an unquantifiable way and subsequently, our actions will testify to our desires.
Yitzhak Sasson 