A Lesson About Imperfection

Posted on 08/30/2016 by Rivkah Lambert Adler in Beliefs and Practices

When we lived in America, we had a canary yellow kitchen, circa 1957. We bought new appliances when we moved in, but the cabinets, tiles and countertops were straight out of the I Love Lucy era. Once, I took pictures of our kitchen and entered them in a design magazine’s kitchen makeover contest. I was shocked that we didn’t win! There would have been some awesome before and after pictures. That’s for sure.

I used to tell people that, instead of spending money renovating our kitchen in America, we bought an apartment in Israel. That was basically the truth. Seven years before we made aliyah, we did buy an apartment in Israel.

Today, that apartment is our home, but for the first seven years, it was a second home, a vacation apartment, a rental unit. When it was being built, we had the option to upgrade the kitchen, but we chose the easiest path and let the builders install their standard, builder grade kitchen.

About six months ago, we decided that the time really had come to renovate our kitchen in Israel. When the pricing came in at 40% more than we had budgeted, we stopped to consider whether, spiritually, this was the right thing to do. Our existing kitchen was very basic and poorly designed, but it was minimally functional. There was nothing urgent about the renovations.

Sensing that we’re on the cusp of a shift in Jewish history, away from the material and closer to the spiritual, we wondered if this was the right time to be investing in the material, especially to such an extent. We discussed the issue with lots of people, including some friends in a geula-oriented Facebook group.

Here’s a sample of the replies we got:

Yes, renovate your kitchen, because when Mashiach comes you will still need a kitchen.
When all our brothers and sisters return home, we'll be welcoming and feeding them until they get set up in their own places. A more functional kitchen will allow you to do more chesed!
The material-physical will be the conduit for the revelation of Geula, we will see with our own eyes the G-dly power that creates the finite from nothing to something every moment. That's the whole reason the Geula happens here in this world as opposed to the heavenly realms, is why even Moshe will come back physically for the revelation only in this world. That's also the reason physical wealth and abundance is integral to the prophecies of Geula, because our physical material is the cornerstone of it all. Our bodies, houses, kitchens and spatulas. Renovate!
A kitchen (especially for women) is an important place to do mitzvos. A working kitchen represents taking care of our family, relatives, friends and all Klal Yisroel (the entire Jewish people) by making food to care for them. I think redoing the kitchen is important for bringing Moshiach because of all the mitzvos you can do!
I believe it was Rav Tsadik haKohen who said that everything that is gashmiut (material) outside of Israel is ruchaniut (spiritual) in Israel. I know people who made their houses especially beautiful, to show visiting Jews that their complaint that living in Israel is too rough was a lie.
When the Geula comes, the days that are now fast days will become days of happiness and joy. Jewish holidays = a lot of cooking!!

A minority, for various reasons, advised us not to renovate. In the end, we decided to go ahead with the project, but we shaved off whatever was more aesthetic than functional.

The kitchen was completed a few weeks ago. For the most part, I’m crazy about the results and am so grateful that we were able to invest in our home in Israel.

At the same time, something about the color of the countertop tile struck me as a little not-quite-right. Earlier this week, I was able to verify that the countertop that was installed was not the same color as the one we intended to get. It’s not terrible. To my eye, it’s just a little “off”.

I spoke to the contractor to discuss the possibility of replacing it with the color we originally picked out. He told me it’s possible, but it’s going to cause some damage to the wood foundation and the backsplash. He asked, “Do you really want the dust and aggravation again because the tile color is a shade off?”

And then I realized that leaving the countertop as is serves as a consistent reminder of a spiritual reality.

Nothing in the physical world is perfect. Everything, everything, everything in the physical world has flaws and is subject to decay and entropy.

Only Hashem is perfect. Only the Torah is perfect.

The Torah of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul – Tehillim 19:8

Our new kitchen is awesome.

But it’s not perfect.

And that’s just perfect for me.

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