For a while now, we’ve been having a slow leak in our minivan tires and the TPMS (Tire Pressure) indicator light would go on. We’d fill the tires, it would last for a time, but after a while, the same thing would happen. When we were at the NJ alumni reunion, the alum host had to fill up one tire quite a bit. Finally, at an oil change, I insisted that the tech look into it, instead of just filling up the tires again. 

A few hours later I get a call that the tires are fine but the issue is with the TPMS sensor. And it would be $300+ to fix the two sensors. My first reaction was to ignore the sensors and live without the warning light. But the technician explained that the issue here was not that the sensors were faulty in indicating the leak on the dashboard but the sensors themselves were leaking air, and thus causing a slow leak in the tires. 

This was significant! Sensors are usually an indicator or symptom, but here the sensors were the cause! 

(The Rogatchover Gaon has this Talmudic dilemma whether the Kosher signs of animals and fish are indicators or factors? Are they just identifying symbols or are they causative markers?)

As this happened in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah, it gives us new perspective on the “Simanim” symbolic/representative foods that we eat on this holiday: apple dipped in honey, pomegranates full of seeds, and other symbolic foods with puns, connections and prayerful messages as we start the new year. Usually I’d think of these as symbols or signs, indicators, like the squished tire with exclamation point symbol on the dashboard of my car. But as my recent expression taught me, symbols can be much more than just symbols – they can play an active role! 

Beyond Rosh Hashanah’s symbolic foods, think of this in terms of the identifying markers of our Jewish identity. You might think that a Kippah is just a sign, but it plays a much deeper role than that. Same for a Chai necklace or Jewish t-shirt you wear around on campus. Don’t dismiss it as mere symbolism. It can run and affect deeper than that. 

Don’t let your sensors/symbols leak! Keep ’em full!