Commanded to Live

Every generation has its thinkers and thought processes.  Albert Camus defined life in the 1950’s.  His view was anything but optimistic.  In fact Camus viewed the world as a rather dark, insidious place.  Life, he said, is rife with pain and disappointment.  For him, not committing suicide was a great accomplishment.  The sixties struggled with the beatnik generation of wanderlust and discovery.  That in turn gave birth to the rebellious 60’s and 70’s.  Alvin Toffler dove in with his plastic society and the maddening pace of technology.  We grew slackjawed with the Nixon era, reactionary with Reaganism. 

Nowadays, we reach for instructionals that will allow us to feel.  The sad fact is that we are overwhelmed with stimuli and, for the most part, have grown indifferent to life.  That is why bookshelves are lined with ‘how to –

be a good lover,

live a fulfilled life,

understand the other sex,

grapple with God….

       A man began to come to shul with great regularity.  About the time of his second child becoming bar mitzvah, Eddy began to show up every week.  He would linger after services and ask me questions about any Jewish idea that came to his head.  As time progressed he converted his home kosher. So I asked him "Eddy, why the sudden change in your attitude and observance?” 

Thoughtful for a moment he looked at me and finally responded.  “When I was young my wife and I were involved in Buddhism.  We attended Ashrams and learned how to meditate.  One day the Master was coming and we were granted a two-minute audience with him.  I asked the Master, “What road should I take?”  He answered that we must first find out about the faith we were born into, Judaism.

“So we returned to this shul and discovered that everything we had there is available here.  We just didn’t know it.”

There are 613 mitzvot.  They touch upon virtually every imagined area of life, and then some.  Underlying all these concepts is being aware of ourselves.  Everything we think and say, the actions we perform and those we refuse to do, defines us.  If we are tired the antidote is to do a mitzvah, if we are elated the vehicle of expression is to do a mitzvah, when we have time on our hands or too little of it, we engage in mitzvot.  Mitzvot make us alive.  They bring vibrancy and meaning to the moment.  And best of all, they are ours!

“Every person is supposed to view themselves as if they had personally been redeemed from slavery,” declares the Pesah Haggadda.  Feeling is the path to mitzvah.