From where will my help come?

What does G-d want from us?" "What do our haters want from us?" These questions have become ever more popular since the war in Israel. But they've been around for thousands of years.

These are spiritually-driven questions, yet we, the askers never seem satisfied with spiritual answers. Tell people it's all about stopping their sins and elevating the world through Torah, tell them it’s about loving your brother Jew, and they will roll their eyes, shut you up. Torah? Nah! There has to be another way," is a reply I've often heard from those trying to avoid any religious duty that might interrupt their daily routines. We opt for alternative means to fill the void, pursuing materialistic ornaments, promiscuity, Botox, yoga, body sculpting, travel, shopping, decorating, golfing, and various distractions, and another day passes without the creation of light. And if you think when this war is over, if it ever is, that we can revert to our old misbehaviors think again.

The question, "What does G-d want from us?" remains puzzling to me. When we read articles about diets, we comprehend what dietary changes we should make. When we read self-help books, we understand the recommendations for a better life. So, why is it that when we read G-d's book, we suddenly become illiterate and struggle to understand our native tongue? We have had the Torah for over 3,334 years--and yet we fail to grasp what G-d wants from us?

When it comes to the truth, we cannot go shopping for the answers we prefer, as if they were items on eBay. The Torah is the only truth, the blueprint for all creation, G-d's architectural plan for the world. To understand the world and our place in it, we must refer back to the original "user's manual." Failing to do so renders us not "truth seekers" but voluntary obfuscators, guilty of manufacturing our own darkness.

So, how can we extricate ourselves from the ever-deepening black hole? One way it through prayer! It is a powerful tool, like a sharp-pointed arrow that can pierce the heavens and save us. Just as pulling a bowstring closer to your heart propels the arrow farther, heartfelt and truthful prayers reach greater heights. When we pray to G-d with all our hearts, souls, and might, we can draw closer to our Maker and even alter the course of nature. Praying and reconnecting with G-d is the ark of our survival. Interestingly, the Hebrew word for "ark," as in Noah's ark, also means "word," alluding to prayer. Prayer is what kept the ark sailing and impermeable.

If our voices can activate Alexa, why would we doubt their impact on the heavens? G-d, like a parent, eagerly awaits to hear from us. Prayer teaches us to be deliberate and articulate in our requests, just as we resent communicating with people who are preoccupied with their phones. G-d, too, wants our undivided attention. Pray as if you care about your relationship with the Divine, not impatiently to get it over with. As Rabbi Doniel Katz pointed out, "How you pray is how you live your life."

As we suffer now through this dark time of war, we can still find and create the light. If we want to fix the world, then we have to return to the user's manual written by God. If you wanted to fix your oven, you wouldn’t read the manual for your washing machine, so why continue seeking for remedies and solutions and answers in all the wrong places. 

Don't think, 'What can I do? I'm only one person.' Remember, Noah was just one person too, and if he would have chosen not to be part of the solution, there really would be nothing to talk about. Mankind would  be extinct and there'd be no one to read this article -- or to write it.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”

Where is the Light?

 

In a world marked by division and conflict, the wisdom of the Torah has the power to serve as a guiding light in this dark hour. The devastating and homicidal terror attacks in Israel have shaken the very foundations of the Jewish community. The refrain of “Never Again” has been fatally edited. The word “never” has been deleted, and now the Jews pay by the word — with their blood. We look into each other’s faces for answers and comfort only to find reflections of our own anguish, grief, and fear. But now, however regretful of the reason, we are looking at each other as family, as fellow Jews, and not turning a cold shoulder, not demonizing the other. A nation that was becoming ever divided has united again in common purpose. And in that unity, we are already beginning to see the light. Israel, the Jewish people, and the Torah are one. Disqualify any pieces, and the entirety is fractured and vulnerable.

The opening chapter of Genesis recounts the creation of our world in six days which evolved from disorder to order, from darkness to light. “And G-d saw the light, that it was good; and G-d divided between the light and between the darkness.” It reminds us that, even in pitch blackness when chaos seems to prevail, there is a Divine plan at work that is aiming for the light, wanting the light, preserving the light. But the work is left no longer for God alone to do. We must play our parts too. In a fractured, evil world, our primary mission is to fill it with light. That light is found in the Torah.

Jews are destined to be a light among the nations. Well, what exactly do we have that can light the way? Is our DNA fluorescent? What we have is the holy Torah that is the torch for humanity. But too many of us have shoved the Book on the shelf. We are too cool and too modern for God. Too busy, too ambitious, too practical, too important, too rich, too gorgeous. But every time we forget we are Jews, while mistaking ourselves for whatever else, our enemies successfully remind us.

In this week’s Torah reading, God says, "Let us make man." Who is the "us"? We are the "us"; we are the partners in creating ourselves. This week the world has changed forever. The future of humanity is being reset; now, what will we emerge as out of this chaos? What will we make of man. The world is now in a war between good and evil; compassion and hatred; light and darkness. We have perhaps our last chance to get it right now.

The truth is we are a people who glow in the dark. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai after receiving God’s word, his face was illuminated with Divine light. The Torah can change our DNA --Epigenetics has revealed that DNA is not static but can undergo modifications and changes -- and all of us can glow by keeping the mitzvot in the Torah. But if we ignore our duty as Jews now, we will surely be submerged in spiritual darkness in tunnels of darkness. We are being dragged underground, but that is not where the light is.

All religions believe that we are reaching or living through messianic times. Now is the time to get it right. Life will never go back to what it was; a new age is upon us. We can’t hide in Netflix or Prime Video anymore. Because the darkness is coming for us all, and it’s imperative to choose which army you are fighting for. Iron domes, missiles, tanks; wonderful to have, but they will not save us. "The Lord is a master of war; the Lord is His Name." And He is the General we must count on. We have to attach ourselves to His light, the only light. Like Victor Hugo once wrote, "They confound the brilliance of the firmament with the star-shaped footprint of a duck in the mud."

Take upon yourselves to do a mitzvah, the real brilliance, not the mud. Be proud to be a Jew. We've tried it our own stubborn way over and over again, and the result is the same every time. An enemy emerges, and we say: “Here we go again.” Well, Einstein said that repeating the same thing and expecting a different result is insanity. It's time to see the light, be the light, and share the light. Or, we will find ourselves in a never-ending night. If we don’t live by the word, we will die by the sword.