Stability is in short supply nowadays. Our foundation has been shaken in many ways and yet, our foundation has strengthened in other ways.
Heroism, compassion, unity, hospitality, care, selflessness, mitzvah, Torah, are but a few words that keep on popping up as I voraciously scan the news on a daily or is it hourly basis.
Stability may be in short supply nowadays but stabilizing opportunities exist in abundance. The ground has been pulled out from beneath our feet and we need to pivot to firmer ground. Anchoring and stabilizing beachheads that help bring balance and equilibrium back into our lives.
Abraham is the focus of this week’s Parsha. He was instructed to go “forth” from his home — essentially uprooting himself from all that was familiar to him and head on over, to the place that G-d was to show him, the Land of Israel. A very destabilizing move!
Being uprooted from everything that was familiar to him couldn’t have been easy for him. Yet Abraham, a man of faith, conviction and the embodiment of “charity and Justice” had the tools with which to navigate. After all, essential and foundational truths are transcendent of time and place. They are eternal and universal.
Our Chassidic masters peel back an extra layer on the instruction to Abraham to “go forth” and explain that it was an eternal mission and instruction for all the generations that follow — to go forth— as in to refine this world with acts of goodness, kindness and mitzvot. A guiding instruction if you will, for each of us with our individual capabilities to hone in and to do our bit to make this world a better place.
The playing field has unfortunately and irrevocably changed over the past weeks. Causes, campaigns, necessities and sensibilities have shifted and need to be refocused but our core mission hasn’t. It remains that same and I for one, continue to be inspired by the intensity and selflessness of the Jewish response to the current challenge.
We need to take a page out of our ancestors books to double down — each with their own personal touch — to ensure that it’s not circumstances that take us out of our personal comfort zones rather our deliberate and premeditated going forth to answer the call of duty!!
We can do it and we will do it. We’ve always done it and we’ve done it impeccably, with class and honor. Am Yisrael Chai!