Fake it Till You Make it!

This past Shabbos I spent my afternoon at a Bar Mitzva of a friend. We all sat together in a basketball gym turned ballroom and tried to no avail to listen to speeches in a room with the worst acoustics anyone could have invented, and we wished L’chaim to the new ‘big boy’ and his family.

Once the formal part was over the informal part began. Around a small table laden with leftovers and schnapps the Yeshiva boys sat down for a Farbrengen - a sit together with a dynamic ‘Farbrenger’s relative of the boy.

We find ourselves two hours ‘in’ and the atmosphere is warm and honest. It’s time for real and honest reflection.

“In the real world, says the farbrenger, there is a slogan that says “fake it till you make it!” For example a stock broker who must drive a car at a 600 dollars a month lease, and wear Fifth Avenue suits making sure to always look sharp and spiffy.

In reality however this guy is just out college and he’s a total shnorer, and the fancy suit was borrowed from uncle Hymie and the leased car is about to be confiscated by the IRS…

But what’s the poor guy supposed to do? The only way anybody is gonna blink in his direction is if he looks like he’s a something.

What happens later? Well in the beginning it’s all a fake, but with G-d’s help eventually it becomes a reality and he can afford to lend his fancy suits to the newbie’s…

Fake it till you make it!

This is so relevant to each and every one of us, cries the Farbrenger, in so many different ways.

For example we have the guy that says: “Oh, this whole Jewish thing, c’mon I only come Yom Kippur and that’s only because grandpa won’t mention me in his will unless I come, so why make believe that I’m praying?”

What do we tell him? “Fake it till you make it!

“I hate my parent/sibling/neighbor/classmate so why fake it as if we get along?”

Fake it till you make it!

“My self esteem is in the Dead Sea and I feel useless, so why go around and continue living and putting up a smile as if life is normal?”

Fake it till you make it!

Dear friends, may you and your family be sealed in the Book of Life for the coming year. And may this year be a year when the faking stops with the coming of the true redemption speedily in our days.