The Synagogue

I am an optimist by nature. I would rather think the best and most situations and people. Having said that, I do not confess to believe in utopia either on the grand or micro level. The fight is part of the plan. Struggle makes living worthwhile. That is why meaningful relationships are born through tumultuous times and productive work often turns out to be disappointing.

The book of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, is read during the Fall days of Sukkot.  It cautions, “Everything is beautiful in its time.” The Sages interpret this phrase to mean that everything happens for a purpose, which may not immediately discernible to us. We learn and grow from every experience. Even the bad. Especially the bad.

And elderly Jewish woman was convinced by her children to come join them at their modern synagogue in suburbia. She came for the holidays from her old shteibel. At the end of services they gathered around to ask their mother what she thought about their synagogue’s striking architecture or, the plush cushy seats, air conditioning and their American rabbi. She agreed it was all very nice but she had one complaint, “alles is shayn, ober men ken nisht vaynen dorten,” (Everything is beautiful but there is no room to cry).

The full range of emotions must govern our lives and be considered part of what it means to be fully human. To exclude the possibility of facing up to difficult situations is to deny ourselves growth. The shul is the paradigm exemplar of the home. We cry and bless, we soothe and challenge, fight and dance in this place.

I pray that you find in your synagogue a place to feel free to exercise the full range of your emotions. The purpose of it is not to be beautiful but a place to inspire.

An offering from the Talmud:

I am a creature of God

And my neighbor is a creature of God.

I work is in the city

And his work is in the field.

I rise in the morning to go to my work

And he rises in the morning to go to his work.

As he cannot excel in my work,

So I cannot excel in his work.

 Perhaps you will say that I do great things

And he does small things.

We have learned that it does not matter whether one does much or little

Only if he directs his heart to heaven.

-Berakhot 17

Think Positive

To have an effect on the way a day turns out is no small achievement.

Years ago my young son got into trouble when he stubbornly refused to clean his room.  It was wall-to-wall shmutz.  As he continued to defiantly oppose the prospect of cleaning the room, shaking his head defiantly, he was punished.

Later that day, when he was out playing, he tripped, fell and skinned both knees.  He cried at the sight of the jagged skin and blood.  The pain was made infinitely worse by the horrid look of his mangled knees.

We dressed the leg after cleansing it and then applied an anti-bacterial ointment.  Afterward, he went out to play, much more carefully now and with noticeably less agility.

By mid-afternoon, this seven-year-old had lost his two Ninja Turtle action figures, merely a few hours old.  Together we launched a search mission but met with no success.

After these episodes, my son entertained himself with crayons and abundant imagination.  He played in the kitchen with them the long afternoon. At dinnertime he was positively beaming when I gave him his plastic turtle figures, which I had found on the front lawn.

To anyone but a kid such a day would’ve been devastating.

Compare:

>Having a “tiff’ with our friend or spouse

>Banging our fingers on the door or breaking a fingernail.

>Losing our ring somewhere near the kitchen counter.

What I have personally witnessed such a day would bring many to their knees in despair.  And we all know that the potential for things to go wrong is enormous.

When we get up in the morning Jewish tradition tells us to say the following prayer:

My God.

The soul You have given me is pure, for You created it. You formed it and You made it live within me. You watch over it daily. One day, you will take it from me and bring it to everlasting life.

God and God of my fathers, as long as this soul is within me I will declare that You are the master of all deeds, the ruler of all creatures and the Lord of every living soul.

Blessed are you Lord, who brings life to the lifeless, exhausted body.

Perhaps one the greatest human achievements is to allow the 10 wonderful things that happen to us every day, to outweigh the one negative event.