It’s been over 100 days since the unthinkable and inconceivable yet it is precisely because it was so beyond expectation that it was able to transpire.
Life can be counter-intuitive to say the least. Paradoxical describes the world better. The world, beautiful and brutal at the same time.
So is the world a garden or a jungle?
In 1951, the Lubavitcher “Rebbe” accepted the leadership role of the Chabad Lubavitch movement with an address that specifically referred to the world as a garden. Not but a few years after the Holocaust — the worst tragedy that befell our people — he pointedly spoke about the world as a garden with the responsibility for each of us to tend to it accordingly.
Perhaps that too, then, was counterintuitive yet it’s not difficult to see the results of that talk. Moreover, the crux of his address was that specifically in this world, despite the vestiges of evil and the capacity for destruction one could effectuate the greatest impact — the cosmic intention of why this world was created.
Here again, it’s not difficult to see the beauty that has emerged post October 7th. The unity of the Jewish people in Israel and beyond. The outpouring of love and care from one Jew to another; the resourcefulness and the support converging from all corners of the world upon one small sliver of land that was Divinely gifted to One nation as an everlasting inheritance, our beloved land Israel.
Garden or Jungle? It’s not an analysis that can be determined over coffee or even in a synagogue. It’s a reality that can only be established on the ground. For to make it a garden requires each of us to become gardeners. We become tenders of the world by living a life of ethics, morals, mitzvah and Torah.
Yes, the world doesn’t quite see it. That’s part of the paradox but the reality doesn’t change. Each of us, with a Divine code that has been handed down from Moses at Sinai, lovingly preserved for thousands of years, has what it takes to forge forward and to ensure that the Garden of G-d looks as well tended as possible— may that inspire the next stage of life — the arrival of Moshiach speedily in our days!
With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,