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IN TIME FOR THE HIGH HOLY DAYS
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• Family memberships are currently available
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HAVE YOUR FAMILY JOIN OUR EXTENDED
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Find Life's Blessings,
Learn To Love Life
Shabbat Re'e: Deuteronomy11:26-16:17;
Isaiah 54:11-55:5.
A
long time ago, I believed quicksand of our powerlessness.
that the words of this won-
Emotional pain is as debilitat-
derful Torah portion are all ing as its physical counterpart. It
about the Jewish concept is the centrifugal force that drags
of free choice. After all, when it us into a realm that seems to have
says, "I set before you this day a no escape. It is easy to be con-
blessing and a curse ..." isn't God sumed by it, and to wallow in all
letting us choose between two dis- of the loneliness and the rage that
tinct regions of life?
are its natural counter-
Yet, the older I get, the
parts.
more I wonder which
When pain happens,
events are blessings and
we tend to see everything
which are the real curses.
through its filter. In the
Some happenstances that
prism of hurt, we are
were, at first blush, filled
shaped by the events
with light, suddenly
rather than vice versa.
turned very dark and
We become affected,
troubled; and I have per-
rather than effective.
sonally witnessed the ag-
When faced with cata-
RABBI
onizingly painful losses
strophe, sickness or
DARNEL I.
from which a thousand
death, even the strongest
SCHWARTZ
blessings flowed.
and most talented indi-
Perhaps you can find
SPECIAL
viduals fall apart and
one of the better inter-
TO THE
suddenly develop the per-
pretations in an antholo-
sona of the victim.
JEWISH NEWS
The Tcrah portion is
gy called the Itturei
Torah, which speaks in the name telling us that it doesn't have to
of the Vayedaber Moshe. In it, the be that way. The choice is not in
author tells us that you cannot what happens to us, but in how
choose what is going to happen to we react.
you. You cannot pick the blessing
To the mystic, all wisdom
or the curse, life or death; all you comes with the realization that it
can do is choose how you are go- is infantile to believe that we have
ing to react to it all. If you are control over everything in our
blessed with wealth, for example, world; we don't! Our blessing and
and you forget God, suddenly the our ability to cope lie in the un-
midas touch takes over. Posses- derstanding that the only power
sion becomes more important we possess is our ability to control
than people, and instability pre- our reactions to the circumstances
vents any possibility of joy, which that we are faced with — good,
bad or indifferent. When we know
turns blessing into curse.
On the other side of the coin, this one fact, we possess the pow-
if you amass wealth, and use it for er to stop the pain.
the sake of God and humankind,
The real blessing the Torah is
and it helps you to deepen your offering is that, when faced with
spiritual life and your chance to the worst situations in life, we try
make your world a better place, to find the kindest and nicest way
then it will be a blessing.
of dealing with both the problem
Most of us are concerned about and the people around us.
the curses and seeming catastro-
A woman lost her child to a
phes that happen. When disease drunk driving accident and, in-
or death cuts a hole through our stead of cursing the world, she be-
lives, a 19th century Yiddish gan an organization called
proverb sums up our reaction: 'To Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
a worm in horseradish, the whole
A man stricken with cancer
world is horseradish." Interpre- suddenly realized that cursing the
tation: To those in pain, the whole doctors did not make him any
world is filled only with painful healthier, and being angry at
things.
everyone who came to see him just
When disaster strikes, we re- cost him the few visitors he was
alize that we are not inviolate, and receiving. His wife told me that
that can be a scary and debilitat- the hardest thing for him to do
ing thought. The trick to making was to consciously be nice to peo-
life a blessing is getting our minds ple, and not lash out at them for
out of the horseradish long enough being healthier than he was. The
to create positive alternatives to cancer that the doctors believed
our pain. If we don't find options, would kill him in a matter of c-7/
we will be constantly stuck in the months has totally disappeared
from his body for the past six
years. The doctors have said that
Dannel I. Schwartz is the
it is not even in remission — the
spiritual leader of Temple Shir
cancer is gone. Miracles happen.
Shalom.