Chevruta
- How do you define hope? Do you agree with Rabbi Sacks that it is different from optimism? If so, why? If not, why not?
- Is hope a helpful concept, or do you prefer to think about is as cultivating balance, peace, etc
- Is there someone-- or something -- in your life that brings you hope?
- When you have felt a loss of hope, what have you done to cultivate it?
BREAKOUT GROUP #1
Read Text 5, answer questions below
Read Text 7 and answer questions below if time
Be ready to present to the full group some of your ideas
Where does one find hope?
Hope for something about which one is in doubt whether it will come or not, does disturb the soul, preoccupying it with thoughts of how to obtain it, but hope for a thing which one is sure will come as, for example, the hope for the light of the morning, does not disturb the soul but makes it glad, because it conceives the good which is sought and is confident that it will come....
Hope in God, far from weakening the heart, strengthens it, for if one hopes in God and his heart truly relies upon the Holy One of Israel, trusting that He will grant his request, he gets stronger and more courageous, as we read: “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, … But they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.” That is, even the youths, who do not usually become faint and weary, and the young men, who usually renew their strength, will all stumble and faint and be weary, but those that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, and the more strength they have the more they will be able to hope, and the hope in turn which has God for its object, who is a permanent being, will further increase their strength, the two mutually reacting upon each other, hope causing strength and strength in turn causing hope.
This texts suggests that hope comes from 2 different places
1. What/where are are they?
2. Have you ever found hope in either of these places?
3. Do you like/dislike this text and why?
Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) - In Conversation With Aron Hirt-Manheimer, Reform Judaism, 2005
One must wager on the future. I believe it is possible, in spite of everything, to believe in friendship in a world without friendship, and even to believe in God in a world where there has been an eclipse of God's face.
How does one come to believe in friendship in a world without friendship? What does he mean by this? What could you do to cultivate this kind of friendship?
Above all, we must not give in to cynicism. To save the life of a single child, no effort is too much. To make a tired old man smile is to perform an essential task. To defeat injustice and misfortune, if only for one instant, for a single victim, is to invent a new reason to hope.
Do you agree with that defeating misfortunate or injustice, even if only for one instance, is to invent a new reason to hope? As a Holocaust survivor, what might he teach us about holding on to hope, or could he help us understand hope in a new way?
Just as despair can be given to me only by another human being, hope too can be given to me only by another human being. Mankind must remember too that, like hope, peace is not God's gift to his creatures. Peace is a very special gift--it is our gift to each other. For the sake of our children and theirs, I pray that we are worthy of that hope, of that redemption, and some measure of peace.
Of all the lines above, which one do you like the most and why?
BREAKOUT GROUP #2
Read sources 9-11 and answer questions in blue
Be ready to report back to the group
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶל־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֗ים הִנֵּ֨ה אָנֹכִ֣י בָא֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וְאָמַרְתִּ֣י לָהֶ֔ם אֱלֹהֵ֥י אֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם שְׁלָחַ֣נִי אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם וְאָֽמְרוּ־לִ֣י מַה־שְּׁמ֔וֹ מָ֥ה אֹמַ֖ר אֲלֵהֶֽם׃
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה וַיֹּאמֶר כֹּה תֹאמַר לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶהְיֶה שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶם׃
Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
14. And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh.” He continued, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh sent me to you.’”
Future Tense – How The Jews Invented Hope
Rabbi Sacks
...Human beings are the only life form capable of using the future tense. Only beings who can imagine the world other than it is, are capable of freedom. And if we are free, the future is open, dependent on us. We can know the beginning of our story but not the end. That is why, as God is about to take the Israelites from slavery to freedom, God tells Moses that His name is ‘I will be what I will be.’ (See above, Exodus 3:13-14, for original text)
In your own words, how would you explain the connection between freedom and G-d's name?
Judaism, the religion of freedom, is faith in the future tense.
Western civilization is the product of two cultures: ancient Greece and ancient Israel. The Greeks believed in fate: the future is determined by the past. Jews believed in freedom: there is no ‘evil decree’ that cannot be averted. The Greeks gave the world the concept of tragedy. Jews gave it the idea of hope. The whole of Judaism – though it would take a book to show it – is a set of laws and narratives designed to create in people, families, communities and a nation, habits that defeat despair. Judaism is the voice of hope in the conversation of mankind.
What laws or teachings do you know of that may help us create "habits that defeat despair?"
Judaism is a religion of details, but we miss the point if we do not sometimes step back and see the larger picture. To be a Jew is to be an agent of hope in a world serially threatened by despair. Every ritual, every mitzvah, every syllable of the Jewish story, every element of Jewish law, is a protest against escapism, resignation or the blind acceptance of fate. Judaism is a sustained struggle, the greatest ever known, against the world that is, in the name of the world that could be, should be, but is not yet. There is no more challenging vocation. Throughout history, when human beings have sought hope they have found it in the Jewish story. Judaism is the religion, and Israel the home, of hope.
In general, when you have felt a loss of hope what have you done to cultivate it?
Is there anything from this lesson that you could add to your toolbox when it comes to cultivating hope in your daily life?
Holding Out for Hope
The Possibility of Disappointment by Rabbi Aaron Potek
https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/266833?lang=bi
God offers no silver linings here. This isn’t a “there is no promised land” or “the promised land was inside of you all along” Lifetime movie moment. There are no second tablets at the top of this mountain. Instead, God says: “Yes, there’s a promised land. You can even see it. And you won’t get there.” On the surface, it feels almost cruel.
But I’d like to think God is helping to broaden Moses’s perspective. The Promised Land is only one direction. Look West, East, North and South. A life, your life, can never be reduced to or defined by the disappointments, painful as they may be. There are always wonderful moments, too.
I wish I could tell you that you will reach your promised land. Perhaps you will. But the hard truth that our Torah teaches us through the example of Moses is that not everyone does.
Accepting that our dream might never be realized is painful… but it’s also liberating. It allows us to hold on to a more realistic form of hope - an uncertain hope. That uncertainty makes disappointments less devastating and compels us - when the time is right - to climb back up the mountain. What waits for us there? Maybe a new set of tablets, a new opportunity. Or maybe just a broader perspective that lets us see beyond the disappointment.
~ Excerpt from Rabbi Aaron Potek (see link above)
- What new idea are you taking away from this text about the concept of hope within Judaism?
- What do you think is the overall lesson we can learn from Moses breaking the tablets and not entering the Promised Land? Do you agree/disagree with this premise and why?
- What do you think of the idea of finding hope in uncertainty? Is it helpful or unhelpful to you personally?
- Have you ever found hope this way?
- Can you think of a hope/dream you currently have you could infuse with this kind of outlook? What would it take? How would your hope/dream feel different?
אמר רבא בשעה שמכניסין אדם לדין אומרים לו נשאת ונתת באמונה קבעת עתים לתורה עסקת בפריה ורביה צפית לישועה פלפלת בחכמה הבנת דבר מתוך דבר ואפילו הכי אי יראת ה׳ היא אוצרו אין אי לא לא.
After departing from this world, when a person is brought to judgment for the life she lived in this world, they say to her in the order of that verse: Did you conduct business faithfully? Did you designate times for Torah study? Did you engage in procreation? Did you hope for redemption? Did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom or understand one matter from another?
What does the order of this text teach about the role of hope?
מאמרי ראי"ה - קודש וחול בתחית ישראל (מן עתון 'ההד', תרצ"א)
ביחס לתקוה המפעמת בלב כל יהודי מדור דור לישועה ולגאולה השתמשו חז"ל בביטוי 'צפיה'. שואלים לאדם 'צפית לישועה', ולא 'קוית'. צפיה היא מגזירת 'צפה'[1]. תפקיד הצופה להשתמש בכל מאורע שהוא להזהיר על תקלה ולעורר למפעל של ישועה. וכך עלינו להשתמש בכל המאורעות שבעולם, שעל ידם תוכל לבוא או לצמוח תשועה לישראל...
Regarding the hope for salvation and redemption that beats in every Jew's heart from generation to generation, our rabbis used the term צפיה. A person is asked "did you hearken (צפיה) for salvation?" and not "did you hope". צפיה comes from the word "scout". The role of the scout is to use every occurrence to warn against problems and to awaken the undertaking of salvation. So it is upon us to make use of every occurrence in the world, for through them salvation for Israel can arrive or spring up.
In what way is hope related to action?