Is the blank sheet of paper that we all enter life with, really blank?
Yesterday, as Dina and I welcomed our new grandson into this world (born to Rivka and Yitzchak Pruss), I naturally reflected about the blank sheet of paper that from first breath and on starts to fill up.
The blank paper with a line down the middle. The things we control and create on one side and the tools, opportunities and assistance we are gifted —on the other side.
Picturing these two columns I saw a long list on both side of this proverbial blank sheet. Achievements galore, the sky the limit. Yet that column was futuristic. What “will” become. The second column however was pretty full already, in the current. The first breath as the first entry add to that loving family, community and so much more — the paper was far from blank!
In this week’s Torah portion Moses makes what by all accounts can only be described as a bombshell statement — yet he says it in the most minimalistic manner.
“And now Israel what does Hashem your Gd ask of you? Merely to feel the sense of awe and fear of him”. How minimalistic to suggest that this is a mere request — let’s face it, it’s more like a lifetime pursuit. We all well know the challenge of fostering a true relationship with GD and maintaining it. It’s a struggle to say the least.
Yet that itself isn’t the bombshell. The nuanced inference from this statement is. You see the Talmudic Sages derive from this — that ALL comes from Heaven ASIDE for a true relationship with the Divine — the Transcendent. For that, one must work hard to achieve.
Simply put, all our opportunities, blessings and gifts regardless of who, what and where — are preordained. Who we become as an individual, the choices we make, the focus of what we do with the blessings and raw goods that are sent our way and that we work hard for — the respect, appreciation and sensitivity to the transcendent — that, isn’t preordained. It’s that searching and mastery of life that Moses is referring to.
The sheet of paper is most definitely not blank when we enter this world, nor is it blank upon the start of each day. We are gifted all that we need to transform this world to a goodly and Gdly place but that is in each of our hands!
With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,