A Glimps Into The Future

Rabbi Irwin Wiener, D.D.

September is approaching and with it the High Holiday season. The holidays are late. Are they ever on time? This year, however, they are really late. September will have almost left before we start the process of re-examining our lives and evaluating the past and contemplating the future.

We begin by preparing for this period with Selichot utterances daily and then Selichot night comes and we are filled with anticipation. What is it that we are expected to do? What significance does this period hold in our understanding of what is required of us? Why prepare? Holidays come and go, but this particular time of the year leads us into a period of self-evaluation. How awesome!

We should not only ask that our sins be forgiven so to cancel all that transpired. Rather we should develop a better insight into who we are so that our faith can be enhanced and our lives become fuller. That is why preparation is necessary.

The Chofetz Chaim, the saintly sage, reminds us that the ultimate question we should ask is not what we want from God but rather what God wants for us. Observe carefully, not what God wants from us – what God wants for us. There is a difference. We are always asking God for different things. Sometimes we know that they are unreasonable requests, but we ask never the less. But if we take a moment to think about what God wants for us, we can understand the essence of our relationship with the Divine and our purpose for being.

So what does God want for us? It is really very simple: Life was breathed into us to enhance the process of creation. What value is there to creation if there is no one to enjoy it, to live it? How do we accomplish this? That is the eternal question.

There is a Midrash that talks about a conversation God has with the angels. In it God is determining whether to give the Torah to humanity. The angels are incensed that they were not being considered to receive such a treasure. God then explains that giving the Torah to the angels would be tantamount to giving it to no one. Only human beings can appreciate and enjoy and even strive for those ideals contained therein. Heavenly beings cannot appreciate good and evil, reward and punishment, adoration and fealty.

Additionally, the Torah deals with human frailty and is a repository of the development of mankind with all their foibles. It speaks of our origins. It details our history. It shows that, while God is perfection, creation is filled with imperfections that require people to make right. This is called choice, and for sure it is the nature of our partnership.

If Adam and Eve remained in the Garden of Eden where would ambition and life’s interests be found? Life would hold no incentives or goals. We would wander around, day after day, smelling the roses, enjoying the fruit, and never wanting for anything
Sounds ideal but think how boring. Think about days not turning into nights, weeks not turning into months and months not turning into years. What would be the purpose of time? Eating from the “tree of knowledge” was necessary because it enabled us to understand that there is a beginning and an end. We were banished from the Garden because to then eat from the “tree of life” would have meant that there would be no potential for growth.

What does God want for us? Perhaps that can best be answered as follows: There was an Oracle who could see the past and the present and even into the future. All knowing and all powerful he presented a challenge to a little boy who wanted nothing more than to show that the Oracle was not the magician he was thought to be. To trick the Oracle and show him up was his goal.

He devised a plan whereby he would catch a bird and hold it in his hand behind his back and then confront the Oracle with the question as to whether the bird was alive or dead. If the Oracle declared the bird to be alive, he would squeeze the life out of the bird and show that the Oracle was not all knowing. If, on the other hand, the Oracle would say that the bird was dead, he would show the bird to be alive and well.

His plan solid in his mind, he started out to confront the Oracle. When he found him, he asked his question holding the bird tightly behind his back “Is the bird I hold in my hands behind my back, alive or dead?” The Oracle then replied, “The answer to that question is in your hands.”

This is what God wants for us: To take life, with all its ups and downs, firmly in our hands and be what we can be, do what we can do, without regard for reward, without expectations. To live life because it is a gift. To understand that life contains joys as well as sorrows. To realize that there is a beginning as there is an end. To treat all that is in between with respect and dignity as God did when our souls were given to us. And to imagine all that can be because we have the capacity to create as well.

Perhaps, if we consider all this, the High Holidays will have added meaning. We will not fear the future but rather experience the thrill of planning that future. After all, it is September, and this is the time set aside to do just that.