How Foolish Are You?

InspirationParsha

Jan 30

We live in blessed times with unique awareness about our inner world. With that comes an increase in anxiety wondering how we can get rid of the narratives that seem to interfere with living in alignment.

75 years ago, this week (10 Shvat), the Rebbe accepted his role as 7th Rebbe of Chabad. In his opening talk the Rebbe shifted our thinking from seeing the reality of world as a chaotic place to shifting our perspective to see the world as it really is; a Garden of Eden.

This shift is not only in the outer world but also in our inner world. We are a garden, a G-dly and Divine Garden. The fact that there may be weeds in the garden doesn’t change that truth. In fact, it tells us that the weeds in some way need to be cleaned up in order to restore the garden to its true reality.

The Mishkan, the portable synagogue that accompanied the Jews in the desert, was made from Acacia wood – in Hebrew Atzay Shitim, made into beams - in Hebrew Kerashim. These two Hebrew words represent the job of the Jew on this earth. The word Shtus, the root of the word Shitim means to turn away or foolishness. Kerashim has the same letters as Sheker – falsity.

To make a home for G-d on this earth, to build a Mishkan for Hashem, requires that we harness those weeks, the foolishness and the falsity and use those very things to construct the very structure of the Divine Home.

The narratives, the foolishness’s and the falsity need not be discarded, they’re not bad. We need to eliminate the shame around those narratives (and the blame and victimhood) and recognize that this is the very material that welcomes G-d into our world.

I know a fellow who is a great activist in the Jewish world. He is a real connector and a climber. He has made significant change and impact. He likes to talk, he likes to schmooze, and he likes to tell stories.

I imagine as a child he probably had a lot of anxiety and was a big yenta. At some point he decided to take these foolishness’s, falsities, and narratives and harness them in the role of making a home for Hashem.

Sometimes, those tendencies are not just foolish but are actually unholy. Those too can be harnessed if we take the time to recognize that not only are these tendencies our narrative but they are actually the narrative that G-d has written for us. They’re part of the Divine story of our lives and by extension the Divine narrative for the collective of humanity and history.

The key is to shift perspective. To move away from the shame and blame, guilt and victimhood, to a place of seeing the Divine in the Garden around us.

May Hashem bless you and me to be able to have this shift and see things for how they really are!

With all my love and blessing,