What Are You Waiting For?
Do you have something you are looking forward to? Does the future look bright to you?
The world we live in currently has no shortage of troubling news. Whether it is economic, political, national, global or Israel, there is plenty of things to worry about.
What does the Torah have to say? We are currently in the "nine days", the nine saddest days on the Jewish calendar. This coming Monday night begins the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, Tisha B'Av, the day both temples in Jerusalem were destroyed and countless other sad events happened on that day throughout our long and painful exile.
Yet at the same time this is also one of the most uplifting times of the year. On the very day that we mourn the loss of the temples we also reaffirm our hope, faith and trust that the 3rd temple will be rebuilt and the exile will end and the world will become the paradise it was meant to be.
In a sense the destruction of the temples confirms our belief in its ultimate rebuilding. As the Talmud states that on the day the temple was destroyed was the same day that the messiah was born.
The Jewish approach to the painful and sad events that have happened to us has always been that tomorrow will be brighter. Things will get better and ultimately life will be better then ever before.
From a Torah perspective we have a bright future ahead. And we have really good things to look forward to. We know the ultimate outcome, we know the end of the story. So every thing that happens is only getting us closer to that end.
The Tipping Point
What is the tipping point? The tipping point is the point when things change dramatically in a non linear fashion. For example; water acts pretty much the same at 80 degrees as it does at 40 degrees, but at 32 degrees it reaches a tipping point. Water acts in a very different way at 32 degrees, it freezes.
We as individuals and as a collective entity have a tipping point as well.
And just like water as it gets closer to 33 degrees it looks pretty much the same as it did at 80 degrees, yet we know that it is only one degree away from its tipping point. The same is with the collective tipping point when you are one degree away from your tipping point you can still look and feel like you are miles or decades away from it.
According to the Torah each and every good deed contributes to the tipping point. When we reach a critical point the tipping begins. No one knows when that will happen but we are instructed to view every moment of life and every act we do as the potential act that will be the tipping point.
Although we can’t know exactly when this tipping point happens the Torah tells us that there are tell tale signs of its approach and by all accounts we are speeding towards that moment.
But because we have not yet reached that point the world for the most part looks the same. We need to look a bit beyond the surface to see the amazing signs of our rapid approach.
The amazing advances in technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology are just some of the signs of our proximity to the tipping point
I would like to recommend a great series of short online video’s that address these signs. It can be found by clicking here. Rabbi Asher Crispe does a fabulous job and I am sure you will enjoy the 3 part series.
So what are you waiting for? The future is in each and every one of our hands. Do a mitzvah right now. Do a good deed. Become part of the global solution. You are part of the greatest tipping point in history your mitzvah might just be the one the world is waiting for.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Zalman Marcus
Raj wrote...