Lady Liberty

A child visited New York City with her father and saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time.  As they boarded the ferry to return to Manhattan, the little one asked her father, “Tell, me daddy, doesn’t she need someone to help her hold up the light?”

Of course she does.

That is what Americans do.  We support the lady’s arm so that she can remain a beacon to the world and a memory aid to tell us who we are and what is expected of us.

We need ongoing reminders of our tasks in the world.  That is why we sing the Aleynu at the end of every service with its directive, “to perfect the world by Your sovereignty.”

Sometimes we need reminders to tell us why we are alive.  We are not an accident.  Our life has both meaning and purpose.  Those two notions - meaning and purpose - are intertwined.  One cannot exist without the other.  We derive meaning from our life when we live our purpose.

And what is our purpose?  Each of us is a unique creation of the One.  That means that we have special gifts and attributes that only we possess.  While I am not privy to each person’s reason for being, I do know that we were created to help one another along their path as they are charged with the same responsibility to us.

It is not always easy to stretch out from our protected comfort space and help another person but it makes us finer people.  Our life’s meaning is greatly enhanced when we hold up someone’s heavy arm and give him or her respite.

Martin Buber wrote, “If you want to raise a man from mud and filth, do not think it is enough to stay on top and reach a helping hand down to him.  You must go all the way down yourself, down into the mud and filth.  Then take hold of him with strong hands and pull him and yourself out into the light.” 

Note that Buber writes to “pull him and yourself out into the light.”  Something miraculous occurs when we go out of our way to help another.  The universe begins to thrum with a joyous noise.  We are uplifted when we uplift.

In the midst of the story of the story when Pharaoh’s handmaid stretches out her hands to grasp the floating basket that contains baby Moses, Rabbi Judah commented that her arm miraculously lengthened so that she could reach the basket without endangering herself in the treacherous Nile.

          Generations later the Kotzker Rebbe asked, “How did she know that her hands would be lengthened to grasp the child?”  He answered, “It is our responsibility to reach out, even if we think we cannot touch the victim.  God will do the rest.”

And the universe sings.  We are meting our purpose.  And the Lady of the Harbor stands more erect.