This past week was another reminder of where we are age wise. It was the yahrtzeit of one of my closest friends, Rabbi “Jake” Jackofsky. It was a week of visiting some longtime friends who are dealing with very serious illness and hearing of others who are beginning challenging journeys.
This week’s portion reaches out to us with a reminder that speaks volumes to us as we age. The passage begins with a famous line “See, I set before you this day” (11:26). The portion discussed blessings and curses resulting from following or rejecting God’s commandments. It details challenges on following false prophets, the care for the poor and needy and holiday observances. Pay particular attention to chapter 15 and the call to open our hands to people who lack necessities. Again, the image of the open hand that we looked at last week.
But back to that first line. Look at the word “ha’yom”, this day.
We will encounter this again later in Deuteronomy in chapter 29. Our tradition loves this word. But this week, let me ask you to look at this word, and its meaning of “this day”. It speaks volumes to us as we get older and learn to deal with the changes in our bodies and lives and how we chose to accept these changes. No doubt many of us reading this know people, friends of ours, family members, maybe even us, who are dealing with huge changes in our lives, bodies, relationships etc. How many times have we been in discussions when we ask a friend how they are and their response is simply, “well, I got up today.”
There is this wonderful Netflix documentary with Norman Lear, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner that talks about the fact that if they get up and read the Obits and they are not in them, they go and have breakfast! Out tradition reminds us that when we wake up in the morning, we open out eyes and say “modeh ani l’fanechah,” (I am thankful that I am alive).
Here is that message, we have another day, another gift of life. We may not be able to control the circumstances if our life as we wake, but we can choose how we deal with, look at and live the day we have been given. Again, the theme of this Torah book, and much of our tradition returns; it is our life and the value and reality of choice is ours, and we can determine if we go down the path of blessing or that of curse.
Yes, much of what we much deal with every day is out of our control. But what is within our control is how we chose to “see” (r’eh) the day.
We can accept whatever circumstance there is and try to work with it or surrender to it. Yes, for many this is not easy. The person waking up today dealing with serious illness or feeling as if the world has forgotten them and that they have no worth will be sorely challenges to “see” the day as a gift. That is where one’s faith may come into focus.
For each of us, no matter what our theological foundation, is tested each day in the matter of faith: faith in our self, faith in a future, faith in our own ability to overcome life’s challenges and see the potential for blessing.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Richard F Address
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
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