There Is Some Satisfaction In The San Francisco Rain (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Mission In The Rain")

          It has been two full weeks since our twenty-year-old daughter had ACL replacement surgery. Since the surgery, she has passionately focused upon rehabbing her knee. Three times a week either her mother or I shlep her to rehab. Every day she insists upon taking a walk down the street She has gradually increased her distance and now walks approximately 100 yards on relying upon her crutches as little as possible. She walks these100 yards slowly, carefully and it is terribly exhausting. Every day, after the walk, we ice her knee and she takes a nap. When she wakes up, she begins doing her rehab exercises, then more ice. She has worked incredibly hard and I suspect that she will continue to do so. As impressed as her mother and I are with her dedication, we have been even more impressed with her attitude and mental toughness. She has learned to take nothing for granted. Getting herself in out of bed, going up and down the stairs, washing up, and even sitting with us at the Shabbat tables, she has been nothing but thankful and appreciative of these activities that the rest of us don’t even think about. 

           This week’s Parsha is Eikev. Here, in his second discourse, Moshe explains to the new generation how the second set of tablets that contains the Aseret Dibrot came into being. He explains how God forgave the parents of their idolatrous behavior in regards to the Eigel Zahav (Golden Calf), and all B’nai Yisroel must do essentially refrain from Idolatry, serve God, worship God, and the nation will be rewarded with water, grass and quality lives. Moshe also reminds B’nai Yisroel that they have nothing to fear when they enter into Canaan and conquer the land even though they may be outnumbered because God has already demonstrated that he will protect his people. He did so during the Yetziat Mitzrayim (Exodus), and as long as B’nai Yisroel keeps its side of the B’rit, God will continue to protect his people.

However, it is towards the end of the Parsha, that we encounter a possible answer from a passage of Torah that should be familiar to all of us. V’Haya Im Tishma’u El Mitzvotai Asher Anochi M’tzaveh Etchem Hayom L’Ahavah – It will be that if you hearken to My commandments that I command you today to love Hashem your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul…(Deut. 11:13). This is the second paragraph of the Shema, a part of the daily prayers we say every Shacharit (morning service) and Ma’Ariv (evening service). In this second paragraph of the Shema, we are told that there is a reward for our obeying God’s commandments and there will be retribution for disobeying God’s commandments. Among the rewards is a phrase that, at first glance, does not seem like such a reward. V’Haya Im Tishma’u El Mitzvotai Asher Anochi M’tzaveh Etchem Hayom L’Ahavah Et Adonai Eloheichem Ul’Avdo B’Chol Levavchem Uv’chol  Nafshachem. V’Natati M’tar Artzechem B’Ito Yoreh Umalkosh V’Asaftah D’Ganecha V'Tiroshcha v’Yitzharecha – It will be that if you hearken to My commandments that I command you today to love Hashem your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I shall provide rain for your Land in its proper time, the early and the late rains, that you may gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil.  V’Natati Esev B’Sadcha Livhemtecha V’Achalta V’Savata – I shall provide grass in your field for your cattle and you will eat and be satisfied (Deut. 11:15). Among the rewards is grass for our cattle and we will eat and be satisfied. We won’t be ecstatic, we won’t be overjoyed. Rather we will be content and satisfied. This notion of Savata “you will be satisfied”, suggest satiety. It assumes that we know when we have “had our fill”. It suggests that in moments of quiet and perhaps anxiety and despair and we ask “is this all there is?” We are supposed to be able to say “Yes, this is all there is…. And it is enough to fill me.” Certainly, the Torah’s words are suggesting a means by which we are able to control our expectations and minimize our disappointments.

          For some, the notion of “satisfied” suggests an acceptance with mediocrity, after all, a final grade of a “C” suggested, “satisfactory” while a “B” suggested “Good and an “A” suggested “Excellence”. However, that notion of “satisfactory” is an external evaluation. V’Savata suggests that the person’s soul is at peace. Satisfaction is a form of wholeness and completeness. V’Savata suggests that you hve the strength and are at peace with the present, with “what is”.  Our daughter understands that recovery takes time. She understands that her recovery from surgery is a process that takes time. She has learned to appreciate each physical accomplishment. She has learned that frustration only detracts from her recovery. She has learned to find satisfaction from the most mundane and ordinary and in doing so she remains motivated to do a little more each day. B’nai Yisroel needs to learn to appreciate the blessings that God has given them, and that requires an ability to find blessings in the smallest of places and activities.

Peace,

        Rav Yitz

Saw A Bird With A Tear In His Eye Walking To New Orleans My Oh My (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Liberty")

This has been an unusually crazy, anxiety ridden week. In the macro sense, there has been an election. As painful, as frequently embarrassing that the campaign has been, the President elect has merely taken the first step, the first step of governing a highly divided, suspicious and angry people with very deep divisions in terms of social values, economic values, and vision for the country. In the micro sense, my father had knee replacement surgery late last week, however there have been several complications (nothing to do with his new knee) that have forced him back into the hospital. Interestingly enough my father voted prior to this knee replacement surgery, however my mother had to leave her husband’s side and run out and vote. My father had anticipated that a week after the surgery, he would be standing, and even taking a few steps. Instead he is lying in bed, dealing with several a post-operative complications that has made the recovery, that much slower and that much more difficult. In both situations, a country and an individual, it seems that both will have to learn to walk again.

This week's Parsha is Lech Lecha. In it, God commands Abram to leave his father, his homeland and everything he has ever known and go to a place where God will show him later. Abram does. He heads down towards Egypt because of a famine. Eventually, Abram leaves Egypt with money, flocks, servants, and wealth. Lot, Abram's nephew, and Abram decide to part ways since each their respective flocks not only become intermingled but their hired hands fight among each other. Abram then fights against several kings in an attempt to protect Lot. Then his wife Sarai, who is barren, tells Abram to make Hagar (the maidservant) the surrogate mother. Abram listens and Hagar has a son named Ishmael. She runs away and then returns. God tells Abram a prophecy. Abram will become the father of a great nation, and that nation will become enslaved for several centuries and then will return to the land that God promised Abram. Then God instructs Abram to circumcise himself, his son Ishmael and all the males of his household. All these events are linked together by the theme of "Lech Lecha" of going, of traveling.

            The Zohar, the rabbinic book of mysticism, comments upon the first verse "Lech Lecha Mei'Artzecha uMimoladtcha, U'mibeit Avicha El Ha'Aretz Acher Areka- Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you (Gen 12:1). Instead of a physical journey, the Zohar explains that Abram was commanded to embark upon a spiritual journey. The soul, while residing in the World to Come, exists in close proximity to God. Because of the spiritual clarity and intensity revealed there, no free will and no chance for spiritual growth and advancement can occur. Like the angels, the soul in the World to Come is called an Omaid, a standee. In this World however, we know that a person has Free Will. This means that we all have the opportunity to advance spiritually as long as we remain in this World. The soul in this world is call a Holiach, a walker, someone who goes, much like Abram went.

            Like Abram, we are all commanded to Lech Lecha. Abram walked and traveled, and so did Lot. Yet Abram epitomized the individual who retained his integrity and ideals despite the difficulties of life, and despite the growing cynicism brought on by age. Abram managed to remember that God is the end and everything else is merely a means to that end. However all the wealth and all the prosperity are not ends in and of itself. We are all commanded to leave our homes, our birthplaces and face the world. We are all commanded to face the challenges of this World and retain our integrity, our ideals and our sense of purpose. That goes for individuals who have to learn to walk following knee replacement surgery as well as entire nations who have to learn to walk together under the new leadership of a President-Elect. The challenge is to enter the physical and material world and retain the priorities consistent with the world from where our Neshamah, our soul came, the spiritual world. For my father, he will have to keep his goals for recovery squarely before him, maintain his sense of humor and do the work. For the United States, it will require an inspired inclusive vision embodying the Constitution with a goal towards a future so that no one is left behind.

 Peace,

  Yitz