Hope

The seeds are always there.

 

Waiting to germinate and rise.

 

That is the underlying message of the biblical creation story.  When Adam and Eve consumed the fruits forbidden to them their “eyes are opened” to all possibilities.  Not only do they see everything, but they become generators of anything that can be imagined, hope, despair, war, love, atrocity, life and death.  Those seeds are planted inside of us waiting for the right mixture of forgiveness or outrage to sprout.

 

Collectively we are aghast at the level of hostility in our community, the United States, Israel and the world.  Charlottesville was not that long ago.  The storming of our nation’s Capital still seems like a nightmare.  Disproportionate gun violence has shocked us as a nation and our alarm is only surpassed by the pandemic that has left us bewildered and anxious.  We are all deeply concerned about Israel’s wellbeing and survival against the massive missile assault and the worldwide protests calling Israel the aggressor for defending itself against the terrorists that seek its destruction.  Again.  It is easy to give in to a sense of hopelessness.

 

"Know yourself that each and every thing in the world has a heart, and also the world in its entirety has a heart. And the toenail on the foot of the heart of the world is more heartful than the heart of any other heart."  So wrote Rebbe Nachman three centuries ago.  His words are essentially the Jewish anthem.  Believe in hope.  Believe in the possibility of renewal and redemption, of change and teshuvah.  What more proof do we need of the ideal of hope to infuse us with optimism than when we sing HaTikvah (meaning The Hope), the lyrics which we sing with enthusiasm recalling that Israel rose out of the ashes of the crematoria of Europe?

 

In the aftermath of eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil each person has the freedom to choose which path they will take.  We have both urges inside us: one wanting to help only ourselves at the expense of others and the other yearning to fix a broken world.  Every day we make a choice, hope or despair.  No one foists upon us how we act or what we believe.  It is always our decision.  Those are the seeds that we choose to cultivate.

 

At a time when the Romans were ruthlessly destroying Jews in an effort to wipe out Judaism in the second century, Rabbi Akiva continually advocated for hope when most around him were in dark despair.  Akiva forcefully preached that redemption is almost here.  They replied to him, "Akiva, grass will grow out of your jaw and the messiah will not yet have come!"  

 

Rabbi Akiva was doing holy work.  He was keeping the flame of hope alive.  He refused to give in to the negative, worst impulses or defeat and worthlessness.  We learn from the pages of Jewish history.  What kept us alive through the pogroms, expulsions, auto de fes and crusades was a belief in something infinitely greater and stronger than hatred, hope.

 

We face the same polarizing issues today.  It is “Jewish” to nourish the seeds of hope.  It is inauthentic and un-Jewish to turn to darkness.

 

Emily Dickinson wrote,

Hope is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all.

 

Let your soul rise.  Do not give in.  Do not give up.  Sing the song of hope.  Water the seeds of hope.  Let them sprout and blossom.  This is why you were created.