Breathtaking Times

 

As an emphatic way to describe an experience, people will say, “It took my breath away.” I too, like everyone else, am moved by things and happenings. But, in honesty, I seem to be wired for bad news, and I can’t say that anything ever took my breath away other than a cardio workout.

But then, two things, unfortunately, did. My father's death and October 7th, 2023, the day Satan's executioners, Hamas, a terrorist organization slaughtered over 1200 Israelis including mothers, children, and just everyone, without discrimination. The only discriminating factor is that they were aiming for Jews. These killers were equal opportunity destroyers. They killed youngsters at parties, raped them, dismembered people, cut off baby's heads burned people alive, and forced families to watch as they perpetrated sadistic crimes on other members of the family. They took hostages of every age. We've heard and documented so many accounts of their subhuman atrocities that

it's so darn difficult to catch one's breath. Then the streets of the world fill not with expressions of solidarity and mourning with and for the Jewish people, but rather with calls to victimize them further. People call for a ceasefire while simultaneously calling to fire up the gas chambers once again, to kill Jews. 

So many of us are no left breathless.

 I can't recall which rabbi said the following, but his words became my new oxygen: “If one cannot catch one’s breath, how can one claim to be connected to Hashem and to be living in faith? We overload our system with fear instead of faith. Worrying about tomorrow, we strive to seize breaths not yet allotted to us, attempting to fit a year's worth of breaths into a single day. 

We read in the Book of Genesis how G‑d breathed the breath of life into Adam. G-d’s breath is our animating force. Yet, often we forget this and become burdened by grief, fear, and disappointment, disconnecting from G-d and going breathlessly through the motions of life as the world unravels around us. 

We can learn an empowering life lesson from our forefather Jacob in this week’s Torah portion of Vayishlach. Jacob’s life story is marked by heartache and challenges. His life could be turned into a Netflix drama with at least seven seasons. Yet, true to his name, Jacob, meaning the heel of a foot, he propelled himself forward in life. His heartaches did not become his Achilles heel, nor did he use them as excuses to spurn G-d. 

Jacob breathed because he believed. 

As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” But if you want to climb it, you have to breathe, let go, and let G-d. 

It's written in our Tanach that in the messianic times, all the Jews will gather from the four corners of the world and return to the Promised Land. Have we ever in our lifetimes seen such a driving force? With that thought, I catch my breath. It's written in messianic times that the whole world will turn against the Jews, and we will have only God. Have we ever been so close to that in our lifetimes? With that, I catch my breath. It's written that truth will be abandoned; have we ever seen that more than now? With that, I catch my breath. It's written that there will be unbridled irresponsibility on the part of authorities and impudent leadership. Have we ever seen such incompetence and a conscious dereliction of duty as we do now? With that, I catch my breath. Live in faith, keep close to God by doing mitzvot. Now is not the time to sin while our trial is playing out. 

I'll end with lyrics from a song written by an English rock band called The Police. Just pretend it’s G-d singing them to you: 

Every BREATH you take

And every move you make

Every bond you break

Every step you take

I'll be watching you.