"Your living is determined, not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life".
What a simple, but, truly, profound idea that clarifies the essence of how we are to approach all the motivational aspects of life.
After listening to my talk, a young man approached me, somewhat confused, asking if I could summarize what life is all about in a very brief manner. My reply to him was the following;
“Remember these three bones and you will succeed in life and begin to realize it’s essence.
The three bones are; the wishbone, the jawboneand the backbone.
The wishbone keeps you going after things, the jawbone helps you find out how to go after them, and it's the backbone that keeps you at it - till you get there.”
How true this is. In life, we need the means to obtain these three bones and as we acquire them, we, then, begin to realize the beauty of life's horizon shining down upon us.
Too often life is knocking on our door and we seem to be so busy that we do not hear it and, consequently, we do not answer the door of opportunity.
Jewish life in the Diaspora is flourishing, religiously and educationally, in ways that would have been unimaginable a century ago. Who can deny that the very existence of our State of Israel is our greatest miracle and one that is always to be cherished.
At the same time, I recognize that these are not the worst of times, nor are they the best of times, but they are the most challenging of times, as we continuously face the world, in Israel and in the Diaspora, proudly, raising our banner for all to see and respect. As we march forward, we must do so with purpose and vigor.
Until we know where we want to be in this glorious world of ours, we will not know where to go. Most important, we must recognize that our movement forward must be motivated not out of fear, but with a positive stand on the values set forth in our Torah, and on the values by which our ancestors lived.
With these thoughts in mind, I begin to reflect upon this week's Sedrah Balak.
Balak, the king of Moav, is in desperate fear of the Jewish People. He knows well he cannot defeat them militarily and summons the renowned sorcerer Bilam to curse them. Through this means, he believes, he will be able to defeat the Jews.
We are all familiar with the story and what the outcome was. Instead of cursing the Jews, G-Dintervened and the curses were turned into beautiful Blessings.
For me, the most important and the most meaningful statement in this entire episode is when Hashemtells Bilam not to go on his mission, because כי ברוך הוא, the Jewish People are a Blessed people, and they will always be protected by G-D.
An amazing feeling of security overwhelms me when I read these words of assurance and know that whatever may come our way, "No One", can bring their curses to fulfillment upon us.
It is sad that our world has not learned this lesson in dealing with the Jewish People and especially with The State of Israel. There are sociopaths like Bilam in our world who are motivated by their greed and hatred and will continue to ignore the word of G-D, כי ברוך הוא
Though it is true that we are blessed, our participation is still required, which is the fulfillment of Bilam's Bracha, מה טובו אוהליך יעקב משכנותיך ישראל, which demands a strong and viable unity, that sees us dwelling in brotherhood and fellowship, under the tree of life, our Holy and Sacred Torah.
This idea becomes even more meaningful as we begin the three week mourning period, bewailing the destruction of our Holy Temple. Our Chazal says, this was all due to the Sinas Chinam of the Jews and our Holy Temple will only be rebuilt when we reverse this hatred into true אהבת ישראל.
This is the most opportune moment to rally our emotional forces, using our wishbone , and our jawbone, and our backbone, in the service of achieving our Achdut, with the Blessing of Hashem,who will turn all the curses against us as He did with Bilam into Brachot, leading us to our גאולה שלמה במהרה בימנו.
No comments:
Post a Comment