“Hashem said to Moses: Come up to Me on the mountain and be there…” (Exodus 24:12).

This verse seems redundant. Obviously, if Moses is going to go up onto the mountain, he will be there.

Not so fast said R’ Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. Unfortunately, it’s entirely possible for a person to be some where physically, but they are not really there. Their mind is elsewhere, and they are not fully present. The Baal Shem Tov used to say that you are where your thoughts are.

This is an extremely important lesson for us to digest in our hyper-distracted lives. When we’re speaking with someone on the phone, visiting a friend in the hospital or playing with our kids, we need to make sure that we are fully there with them and not splitting off our attention elsewhere.

By Rabbi Michael Skobac

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