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Transitions are always hard, they say. But this one takes the cake. The Jewish mind is introspective, fresh with resolutions, warm with images of family and friends, and committed to an all around fresh start. As October nestles in and the leaves begin to show their colors, the crisp weather matches our spirits perfectly. Enter real world.
The headlines are screaming. Three school shootings. Threatening hurricanes. Terrorists ready for war. Political scandal. Suicide. Plane crashes. It's enough to jolt us right out of that positivity and into the numb humdrum that we've just promised not to succumb to. How can a new beginning emerge from all this? We're celebrating a new year, beseeching G-d to seal us for life - while all of this is going on? Is Judaism that out of sync? The post-New Year Jew finds herself feeling a little, well..aloof. She's trying to connect. She's trying to find the unity. ----- Often, the struggle to maintain a positive outlook is tiring. And to make things worse, it is not within human nature to simply ignore the bad. So, what we often end up doing is exerting much inner strength to be joyous, while sacrificing our very nature. The reassuring truth, though, is that new resolutions and this "freshness" don't inherently require floating on a happy cloud to the exclusion of bad news. What is attainable is seeing all of it and understanding that, at the root, it's all one. Indeed, Judaism is all about oneness. "The Lord is One" is a guiding principle that extends into the Jew's every thought, speech, and action - making unity the hallmark of the Jew's every living moment. It imprints our mind with not only the knowledge of a greater unity, but the ability to see it clearly wherever we are, whatever the scene looks like. We don't just proclaim G-d's unity everyday - we live it. Especially these days, the Jew's challenge always has something to do with finding and revealing unity, extracting the essence from seemingly broken pieces. Unity means it's all connected. Everything we see and experience has at its core - albeit often invisible - a common mission, message, and focus. This means that reality - yes, the worldly - can never escape Jewish themes and holidays, for they're all bound together, existing in exactly the same place simultaneously. With a deep understanding of this oneness, hearing bad news doesn't make us feel aloof. Rather, it sends us looking a little deeper for answers, to find the bigger - and totally whole - picture. Unity means divine goodness always exists. If G-d's plan involves the oneness in supposed opposites, let's answer the call and join the mission. Read the news, let the darkness call you in, and go plunging into a search for the divine unity. Where you look, you will find.
For there always is a whole picture. In Judaism, there are no islands. ----- This week’s Torah portion recounts Moses breaking the Tablets after descending the mountain and finding the Jewish people worshipping the Golden Calf.
He knew that the Jews sinning and a definable list of "do's and don't" could not co-exist. So he broke the tablets, banishing them from existence. And G-d responded with the real thing – a Torah so vast and expanding that it leaves room for broken pieces, and even a broken nation. When Moses broke the tablets, the world realized it could not tolerate anything less than real unity. So, no matter how hazy or misleading life can get, there are no separate forces. Only oneness. The good, the bad, the ugly – it's there, the whole and broken together. Fine. It's okay. The world is big enough for that all to exist in a unique sort of wholesomeness. Nothing is going to combust. Without mood and mind struggles, we often feel this sort of pressure. Which way are things really going? Where do I stand? Where is my focus? But you don't have to pick which side to succumb to. When two things exist, there is a unity to be found. With the emergence of another new year and a pledge to optimistic and fresh beginnings, read the headlines and feel broken. But don't stop there. Recognize that this feeling of brokenness is not a contradiction to oneness. G-d put it in the system. There is room for brokenness within the whole. Unity is indomitable, for it has no outside force against it. Not even the nastiest headline.
So, with the New Year now in hindsight and eyes on the routine, don't just struggle to overcome, to find positivity. Take the headlines with you. Don't leave the bad news out. Forget making a transition. Find oneness. The world is big. And there's only one real world.
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