Jack,
In your
speech this morning you mentioned that you believe “there is light at the end
of the tunnel.” You might not realize
this, but that sentiment is only one part of a Jewish way of looking at
life.
Let me start
by first talking about the importance of appreciating the present moment. One need not wait for the future to feel
grateful. Life indeed has many blessings
for which we can and should be grateful.
Sometimes those blessings seem so ordinary to us that we fail to recognize
them. If you’ve been around young children you know that they often see the
wonder in the world better than those of us who are older. Rabbi David Wolpe said it best when he wrote,
“To often we cannot appreciate what is happening now, because we are too busy
contemplating the past (with regret) or the future with anticipation. As a result the world slips by us.” We need to learn from young children how to
appreciate what is happening now! We
need to appreciate the fact that the future will come whether or not we worry
about it, but we can do the most to make our present life full of moments that
we can appreciate.
I hope that
this experience today of being called to the Torah in the presence of your
family and the extended Tifereth Israel family is one that you appreciate. I hope that it leaves you with the feeling
that you have reached a milestone in your life surrounded by and supported by
many who care about you. The miracle of this moment is not that you got up and
showed us that you could read Hebrew, chant a Haftorah, read Torah, or even
speak words of wisdom. The miracle of
today is that each individual in this room is grateful that you are present in
their lives. As we listen to you today
and feel appreciation for this moment in time, we also see glimpses of the
potential that you hold within you.
It is
important to remember that each individual has the potential to be something
beyond that which he or she is now. That
is the second part of a Jewish world view…the one you mentioned in your speech. We all have frailties and flaws but we also
have untapped potential. That is why we
can also have hope. You might have heard
this story before…it was told by the Maggid of Dubnov. It is a story about a king who had a
beautiful diamond. He cherished it and
looked at it day and night, thinking that it was perfect. One evening he accidentally dropped it onto
his hard floor. When he picked it up he
noticed that it had a thin crack running through the length of the
diamond. He was frantic. So he called the experts in his kingdom to
evaluate the situation. Each declared
that the diamond was ruined. It could
not be restored. So the king sent out a
message to his kingdom saying that anyone who could repair his diamond would be
rewarded generously. One old man showed
up to take on the task. He worked for
months and then arrived to show the king the repair. When the king opened the box with the
diamond, he saw the same crack and was enraged.
The old man stopped him saying, “Turn the jewel over.” What did he see? The old man had carved petals of a blossom at
the top of the diamond and the crack was now the stem of a flower. The old man had realized that what appeared
to be a flaw could be used to create beauty.
Jack, I told
you this story because it has a very important lesson. Life does have its challenges that all of us
must face at different times. Yet each
of us is blessed with great potential and that leaves us with an amazing feeling
of hope. Your parents have dreams and
hopes for you because they recognize how special you are and so do we. There is a tradition within Judaism to bless
one’s child every Friday night at the dinner table. It is a way of affirming one’s love and hopes
for the child. It’s not Friday night and
it’s not dinner time and I’m not your parent, but I’d like to invoke those same
words now, because I feel they are powerful and positive.
May you be
like Ephraim and Menashe
May G-d
bless you and keep you.
May G-d
cause His countenance to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May G-d turn
His countenance to you and grant you peace.
Shabbat Shalom.
No comments:
Post a Comment