Page 24 - HaMizrachi #26 Tu Bishvat USA 2021

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein

A SOURCE OF COMFORT
Shabbat IN A TIME OF TURMOIL

s human beings, we seek to we’re certainly seeing polarisation and and that He is carrying us through this.
understand, predict and control. instability on the rise. (Chazon Ish, Emunah uVitachon Ch. 2)
ANot knowing is a profoundly
discomfiting experience. We don’t want Now, as the ravages of Covid-19 con- This deep-seated trust in G-d is symbol-
to live with uncertainty. We want to tinue to be felt, and the world we knew ised by the two challot on our Shabbat
know. And when we don’t, that throws – the world we were all so certain of – table. We know that G-d provided for
our minds into turmoil. becomes less solid and dependable by our people in the desert for 40 years
the day, we’re looking around for some- with the manna from heaven. The two
Countless studies demonstrate the thing to hold onto. Something that will challot at each Shabbat meal remind us
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causative relationship between intoler- give us a sense of stability in a world that of the double portion of manna that fell
ance of uncertainty and severe mental is rocking. Something that will soothe on Friday so the Jewish people wouldn’t
health ailments – anxiety disorder, our existential angst and give us relief have to gather it for Shabbat (Shabbat
obsessive compulsive disorder, severe and comfort. Is there such a thing? 117b). They remind us that our own sus-
depression. tenance today is just as miraculous – it
I believe there is. And I believe we can comes from Heaven even if it doesn’t
We crave a sense of control over our find it within our tradition. It is a mitz- fall out of the sky. On Shabbat, like our
lives and our wellbeing. And Covid-19 vah – the only mitzvah – described by ancestors in the desert, we put down our
has whisked that away. the Talmud (Shabbat 10b) as a gift from burdens and our anxieties, and place our
G-d. It is a mitzvah that helps us deal
This past year, we have all lived through with our deepest existential questions, trust in G-d.
the most life-changing, unforgettable, enables us to devise a more meaningful We may no longer be wandering the
historic experience. We have seen every- lifestyle, and offers us hope for a better wilderness, but our future is equally
thing we know and trust turned on its future. unknown and unknowable, and our
head. Every certainty, prediction, expec- circumstances just as precarious. Espe-
tation has been upended. The world has That mitzvah is, of course, Shabbat. cially now. Throughout the coronavirus
been tilted off its axis. The coronavirus Shabbat is the ultimate declaration of crisis, we have felt our vulnerabilities
pandemic has changed our world in the faith – a faith we proclaim through the acutely, from a health point of view,
most dramatic way, leaving no aspect of Kiddush we recite on Friday night. With from a financial point of view. But each
our lives untouched. the words of Kiddush, we testify that week, Shabbat instils in us the faith to
G-d created the world. There is a great meet an uncertain future with tranquil-
Uncertainty is everywhere. Uncertainty comfort in knowing G-d is in control, lity and trust.
about our health, our jobs, about when especially during times like these. At a
the pandemic will end, or whether life time when we’ve all felt so vulnerable, On Shabbat, we remind ourselves that
will ever return to normal. we put our faith and trust in our Creator. G-d created this world; that He is ulti-
mately in control of it and that He is
It’s an uncertainty that carries great Trusting G-d does not mean we believe carrying us. When we gather around
danger. In a recent webinar discussion everything is going to turn out exactly a table as a family and say the words
I held with the renowned Jewish histo- the way we want; rather, it is an under- of the Kiddush, reaffirming our belief
rian, Rabbi Berel Wein, he noted how the standing that everything that happens in G-d as the Creator and in our holy
society-wide uncertainty that accompa- in our lives is part of G-d’s plan, and mission to fulfil His commandments;
nied the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic led ultimately for the good; that the world, when we look at the two challot on the
to the rise of Fascism. Unfortunately, and our lives, are in His loving hands, table and remind ourselves that we are

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