This week we reached a new milestone as our daughter received her Driving Permit, and for the first time we have one of our own children sitting behind a steering wheel.
At first, I myself was pretty nervous at the thought of this, but quickly realized that this means that our children are growing up and enabling them to drive and sit behind the wheel of a car, is a part of that process. I told myself that our daughter is very responsible and she will be a cautious and safe driver.
Our first drive was in the parking lot of Chabad and that went pretty well and it was exciting for her and relatively uneventful. Our second drive was a little different as I told my daughter we are going to go on a road and she wasn't as excited.
We left our driveway and started going up our street and had gone all of fifty feet, when my daughter stopped the car and put it in reverse as she wanted to go back and not go on the street. I encouraged her and told her that these are very quiet streets and she can do it, and sure enough we tried again and we ended up practicing for about forty five minutes on the quiet roads in our neighborhood.
While she was quite nervous in the beginning, in the end she was extremely happy and felt much more confident about being able to master the skill of driving.
Before we started the journey of driving, our daughter had spent many weeks reviewing the laws of driving and studying all of the safety guidelines and recommendations. On the one hand doing that made the process seem so much more complicated and so complex, yet on the other hand, it helped her understand the tremendous responsibility of driving a car and what safety means.
Another way of looking at driving is much more simple. It is simply about accelerating, braking and parking and knowing how to turn on and off the engine. With this perspective, little things like putting on the blinker before you turn, stopping to look before you move forward, how many hands are on the wheel, how far you stop before a stop sign, what the lines in the middle of the road mean and so much more, just seem like annoyances and very often insignificant.
Yet the truth is, driving safely is all about those little details, and if we forget about them or consider them to be irrelevant, the driving process will not be a smooth or safe one and getting to our destination in a safe and timely manner will not be so simple.
In this week's Torah Portion, we read about another Driving Instructor, Moses, who is teaching the people how to move forward on the journey. He is about to pass on and he will soon no longer be in the driver's seat and he wants them to know how to navigate safely and productively as they move forward on their journey.
He tells them that in this journey they are on, it is not simply about moving forward and going fast. Instead he reminds them that they need to think about where they are, take in their surroundings and act in a way that is responsible and appropriate.
He reminds them not to think that they own the road and they are in charge. Instead they need to remember that there is a G-d who is running the world and they need to move forward in a way that is mindful of that dynamic and reflects the responsibility with which they have been entrusted.
He tells them that there are lots of little things that they can do that will make them better drivers, for example, learning to be thankful and grateful for the blessings that they have already, remaining humble and not becoming arrogant, being caring and mindful of those who are around them who are less fortunate, and by always remembering the why and purpose of the journey.
He tells them that if they do so, they do not need to be afraid of the journey, and all those little details, will be the ones that will help make their journey forward a success. Instead of feeling the need to reverse and not make a move forward because they are afraid, they will instead learn to be confident and proceed in a constructive, safe and healthy manner.
Good Shabbos and Drive Safely
Yisroel