Dirty Dishes

Perhaps you fit into the category of people who let the dishes pile up. Or maybe you live with someone who never seems to get around to doing the dishes. So they pile up. Sometimes they aren't washed until every knife, fork and spoon is used.There are specialists in dirty dishes. You know, the pot-soaker - whenever he uses a pot, he has to let it soak, to make it easier to wash, of course. So it sits in once soapy water - for a week.
Now you may be saying, well, we don't have that problem any more because we have dishwashers. Ah, but do you rinse the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? And if you're just using a spoon to stir your coffee, do you just drop it in the dishwasher's silverware tray, even when it's empty, knowing full well it'll be three days before you've used enough dishes to get the thing half-full and make it worthwhile to run without thinking about a waste of electricity and water?
So even with a dishwasher a dirty dish or utensil can sit unwashed, with not too many companions, for days.
And then at some point, you've had enough. You just can't stand the mess. In a fury or a whirlwind you scrub every pot, scour every piece of silverware, rub every plate, rinse, and rinse again - by hand - every glass.
There, you sigh, satisfied, but promising yourself you'll never again let the dirty dishes accumulate.
Sometimes we treat ourselves like we're a sink full of dirty dishes.
Instead of cleaning our "dishes" when they get dirty, we let them pile up until the work seems overwhelming. And when we finally do get around to washing them, we're a bit annoyed at ourselves.
We use dishes to prepare our #food, and to hold our food, and to help us eat our food. By analogy, since Torah is the food for the soul, our "dishes" are those things we use and do that help us prepare to and also nourish us spiritually.
All the little things that take us through the day - the chat with the bus driver, wiping up the coffee spilled in the office kitchenette, paying the phone bill, arguing with the cashier over the price of that sweater, answering the phone when it's a survey, not saying anything to the person who almost knocked us over in the mall - etc. Every act can, and ought to, have a spiritual purpose, if not directly, then indirectly as part of the process that gives us time, leisure, the peace of mind to feed ourselves spiritually - to learn Torah.
But let's face it, we get dirty in the process. We gossip a little too much with the bus driver, we recalculate the phone bill three or four times, we pushed the cashier a little too hard, we got really annoyed at surveyor.
We can let these accumulate, and then "clean all the dishes" in a frenzy on Yom Kippur. Or we may get ambitious, partially (like doing all the dishes but not the pots), i.e., "get into" a major holiday (Passover's coming up!) or become Jewishly involved or aware for a little while.
Or, we can "clean our dishes" on a daily, or weekly, basis, doing a self-inventory, using the tools the Sages handed down. For you see, in the daily prayers, there are special opportunities to examine our deeds, acknowledge our errors, pray for forgiveness, and forgive others - a time, and place in the service, to daily wash our dirty dishes.