Do you have talents waiting to be discovered?
Maybe you have notice that you have a certain skill, but have an inkling that you do not fully appreciate it?
Is it possible that you are completely unaware of some of your own capabilities and strengths?
Hashem had that concern about the Jewish people in the wilderness. As the time came for them to build the Mishkan, the people had stifled, hidden abilities. Hashem exhorted Moshe Rabbeinu to help the individuals discover these masked treasures.
The Chasam Sofer (Toras Moshe, Tizaveh, brought to my attention by Kol Chai Music) quotes from the Chovos Halevavos that a person often has innate abilities of which he is unaware. He can go through life mostly oblivious to his talents until someone else helps him notice them. Like a potent seed that is planted in the earth and not watered, one’s gifts can lay dormant until someone tends to them and helps them grow. To the average farmer, the seed’s potential is obvious, but the seed itself does not know that. It sees itself as simply a featureless pebble, lying listless in the dry ground. The life-giving drops from the farmer are what unleash the seed’s capacity and propel it to glorious heights.
People are like those seeds. They often do not understand their own potential and capabilities. What is obvious to the onlooker is often hidden from the person himself. All a bystander needs to do is show the person his own talents.
The Chasam Sofer explains that Moshe Rabbeinu’s directive was to help people see their undeveloped skills. Moshe was to highlight their abilities and encourage them to use them to create the Mishkan. This is what the Torah means when Hashem commands Moshe, “veata tedaber el kol chachmei lev, asher mileisiv ruach chochma – speak to each one who has the wisdom of the heart, who is infused with the spirit of wisdom.” Moshe was told to converse with each person who had talents hidden in his heart and encourage that person to notice his own abilities and see what he was blessed with. The pasuk means that Moshe should speak to those that are already in possession of wisdom in their hearts and tell them, “You are one of those who is infused with the spirit of wisdom.” Moshe was responsible for showing them who they were.
The idea of the Chovos Halevavos idea resonated with me. My hunch is that not enough people are told by enough people enough about themselves. How would the lives of people we know have been impacted if others had shown them some of who they could be? Would we all have been different if we got more encouragement to see the talents we have within?
Some therapists encapsulate this in a chart called the Johari window. The window contains four quadrants: known to self and not known to self, and known to others are not known to others. The quadrant representing things that are known to others but not known to self is sometimes known as the cognitive blind spot. One can behave with others in a certain way but does not see how he is acting and interacting with them. That area is the pinnacle of lack of self-knowledge. Sometimes, a therapeutic goal is to reduce the size of that box.
The Johari window can describe many parts of our life, both with ourselves and with others. It is specifically apropos when we think about talents and untapped potential within. How much of our abilities might be seen by others, but not when we look in the mirror?
This gives us a golden opportunity to help people. As parents, spouses, educators, siblings, friends, and colleagues, we can turn people’s mirrors into bright windows. We can provide openness and transparency to help them see themselves more accurately. We can notice seeds all around us that are still waiting to be watered.
Can we rise to the challenge? It might take a few drops, and the fruits unleashed can be beyond what anyone imagined.
Rabbi Shmuel Maybruch's Blog 