Life Is…
How would you answer this question? A bowl of cherries? Wonderful? Another name for problems?
What does the Torah say?
Life is what you make of it. It is ultimately up to each one of us to decide what kind of a life we are going to have. We determine if life is wonderful or the opposite. We have the choice of feeling like we are victims of life or feeling thrilled and happy that we are alive.
I shared this thought with a group of seniors at Heritage Point and one of the seniors asked, how can you say that to a bunch of seniors when many of us are truly ill and suffering? Tough crowd. Great question. What do you say? What can you say? So what do you do when you’re in a pickle? You respond with a question. So I asked her, when was there a time in your life when you did not have any problems? If being happy is a function of circumstance then you really never have a chance at being happy. When you are young you have to deal with your parents and peers. When you are older you are dealing with adolescents and school. Then you get married and have to deal with those issues, you get a job and have to worry about productivity and job security. Kids? Now you really have something to worry about. Bills, college tuition, retirement, older kids who move back in or need your support, a stock market that can’t keep its head above water, your savings depleted. Not to mention your relationships, moods, and health issues.
If you are waiting until you have no challenges, don’t hold your breath. So how do you deal with life? Our attitude towards our life and what is happening is in our hands. No circumstance or situation has the power to strip us of our inherent happiness. If we allow it then even the smallest thing can upset our happiness or if we choose we can view life in a positive light despite the most difficult of life’s challenges.
There is a famous book that is on my must read list and that is “Man’s Search for Meaning”, by Victor Frankel. In it the author, himself a holocaust survivor, lays out his understanding of human psychology. In short, if you have a why, a purpose for your life, then you can withstand any what or how. That the deepest part of the person is his purpose; if you have a purpose then you view your life through that prism and are able to see even the most difficult situations and not despair of life. But someone without purpose will not be able to handle life at its most difficult times.
The deeper your purpose and the more ubiquitous it is, the better your ability to handle the varying challenges of life.
The Torah gives our life purpose not just a certain times, but at all times. The Torah shows us how every moment can be purposeful on a cosmic, divine level. By studying the Torah and by exploring its depths we are able to perceive purpose in every moment and situation.
The Mezuzah on our door has the Shema prayer in it. It is also said every morning and evening. What does it say? “Shema…Hear Israel, G-d our G-d, G-d is one”. In Hebrew the names of G-d have different meanings. The first name means the divine energy that is above nature, the second name of G-d refers to the divine energy invested in nature. One is natural one is supernatural. Yet we are told they are one. They are both the same one G-d. When we look out at the world, at our life we can see the divine energy invested in nature, and many times that nature is not very kind to us, it represents all the physical and material things in this world as well as the difficulties in life, the things that cause us stress.
But that is only one side of the coin; there is another divine energy that is present as well, the divine name that represents above nature. It is our job to see them as one. To view everything not just through our physical eyes but to see beyond that and to see that there is another name of G-d at work and present as well. That means not focusing on only on our circumstances but on our purpose.
When we focus on our purpose in spite of what is going on in our lives that allows us to rise above what is going on and see through it. It is also somewhat supernatural as it is going against our nature. G-d reciprocates our supernatural actions with His own supernatural powers. He reveals the name of G-d that is above nature and allows it to influence our lives and actually improve our situation.
May G-d bless each one of us by allowing the name of G-d that represents the supernatural to be revealed so that we don’t have to just believe in it but that we will actually be able to see it with our own eyes, making our lives easier with abundance of health, wealth and peace of mind.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Zalman Marcus