I Need You
Do you feel needed? Have you ever felt unneeded?
The greatest gift of being human is the feeling that we are needed, that someone needs us, our family, friends, community and the world. The more we are needed the better we feel.
One of the worst feelings for a human being is the feeling that he/she is not needed G-d forbid. This explains empty nest syndrome, depression in seniors, and one of the causes of suicide. It also explains the challenges between men and women, naturally women know that they are needed and they have many people and things relying on them. Men on the other hand don’t naturally feel that they are needed or what they are needed for and therefore tend to sit and watch TV while their spouse fumes on the inside at what they perceive as laziness.
It is not they are lazy (although that is sometimes the case) but rather they need to be told what is needed of them and what they are needed for.
Ultimately we are happiest when we are needed and when we are successfully able to fulfill the need.
That is probably why this email will get more opens then most other titles. A nice idea will pique my curiosity, but that I am needed, that really gets my attention.
This week we read about the Israelites leaving Egypt. G-d says to Moses, tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go”. But the sentence doesn’t stop there. It continues “so that they can serve me”.
G-d is saving us from Egypt because he needs us to serve him. We are needed. Not just needed to help out our families, friends community or world but we are needed by G-d the creator of heaven and earth. He needs us.
This is not your typical religious view. This is the Jewish view. We are needed and that is why we were taken out of Egypt, which is why I am here alive today.
In the typical religious sense, we are good, behave and follow G-d’s laws so that good things will come to us and to our families. That is not the Jewish view. We follow G-d’s laws because He needs it. Of course there is a benefit to us but that is completely secondary
To clarify; G-d’s needs are not like ours, they are not limiting and debilitating, they are G-dly needs (or wants and desires).
So no matter who you are or what stage of life you are in, G-d needs you for something. You are absolutely needed and your help is invaluable.
What does G-d need? Look in the Torah, G-d listed all of His needs in there. There is another name for G-d’s needs; a Mitzvah (a G-dly commandment). Every time you do a mitzvah you are fulfilling a divine need.
But Rabbi, I am not religious? Great! Then you wont be doing the mitzvah because you like it you will be doing it because G-d does. Eventually you might enjoy it too which will make doing the mitzvah more enjoyable.
How liberating and freeing. And that is how we are able to escape our own personal confining “Egypt”.
So you are very needed and for that we should be eternally grateful to G-d for the greatest gift of all; being divinely needed.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Zalman Marcus