Macintosh on his "Bark Mitzvah." I just finished Dara Horn's new book "A Guide for the Perplexed," and while it left me feeling, well, perplexed, it did remind me of a lesson. The book was a modern take on the Joseph story, though it veered off into a different sort of ending. In the real Joseph story, Joseph forgives his brothers because he feels that what they did to him was fortuitous. His eventual position in the Egyptian court allows him to save his family from starvation.
Indeed, bad things, even tragic things happen to all of us. It is impossible to tell, however, where these hardships will lead us. It may be that a decade must pass before we can look back and see what would never have happened if the devasting event did not occur. There is no way to tell in the moment or even many moments later. Yet, further down the road, upon reflection, we may see things in a different way.
For me, if my father hadn't left, my step-father wouldn't have come into our lives and introduced my family to travel, sport, and cooking. If the mother of the Australian Shepherd pups hadn't bit my daughter, I would not have spent the last 13.5 years with my beloved Golden Retriever, Macintosh.
As they say, hindsight is 20/20. May we pause this Shabbat and attempt to be "in the moment" with our tsuris. And, may we excavate the timeline of our lives looking for bad which led to good.
Shabbat Shalom.
Indeed, bad things, even tragic things happen to all of us. It is impossible to tell, however, where these hardships will lead us. It may be that a decade must pass before we can look back and see what would never have happened if the devasting event did not occur. There is no way to tell in the moment or even many moments later. Yet, further down the road, upon reflection, we may see things in a different way.
For me, if my father hadn't left, my step-father wouldn't have come into our lives and introduced my family to travel, sport, and cooking. If the mother of the Australian Shepherd pups hadn't bit my daughter, I would not have spent the last 13.5 years with my beloved Golden Retriever, Macintosh.
As they say, hindsight is 20/20. May we pause this Shabbat and attempt to be "in the moment" with our tsuris. And, may we excavate the timeline of our lives looking for bad which led to good.
Shabbat Shalom.
RSS Feed
