It’s a feeling we all know: That initial flutter of concern, the wave of hope, the quick scramble to double, triple check, and rising heart rate which becomes a full blown panic as we realize it's over, sent, no way out.
Yep, I'm talking about the universal and undeniable panic that settles in upon realizing you've sent a text, email, or voice message to the wrong person. Everyone’s done it- And again it happened to me this week on whats app… So first I panicked. Panicked hard. But then it came to me that Whatsapp has a very new and very useful feature you can use to un-send messages within 7 minutes of sending them. The person had not yet read my message, so quickly I deleted it, and the only remaining evidence was the "this message has been deleted" that Whatsapp swaps the erased message with. Disaster averted. Whew. Wipe brow; resume life. But how about if we could mimic Whatsapp's un-send feature in real life? Let’s say we could un-send the harsh words we spoke, undo our poor decisions, and take away actions we regret. What would our life look like if we had an opportunity—even just seven minutes—to re-evaluate our actions before it hits the other person? Would we change anything? The truth is, we do have that feature! The Talmud in Yoma 86b says that we have the ability to take our sins and transform them into mitzvot. It takes time and effort, but if you do it correctly, you can literally undo all your past misdeeds, erasing any indications of them from your soul. It requires deep soul searching, a sincere ‘sorry’ and regret, forgiveness from those you've hurt, honest repentance, and a determination to behave differently with the same situation again. But it can be done! So who's in? I know I am! Menachem Mendel Bluming, Rabbi Vigler and Chabad.org
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AuthorRabbi Mendel Bluming also dedicated six years to serving on the board of directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, where he received the Matthew H. Simon Rabbinical Award for exceptional communal leadership. Archives
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