Life is not a sprint or a marathon. It's a relay race. Take the baton; then pass it on.
He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it; If you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward. Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor; And know that the grant of reward unto the righteous is in the age to come.
- What are the kinds of work in the world that we may never finish?
- How, and why, do we keep working anyway?
- Can you think of people, relationships, ideas, or spiritual practices that sustain you as you keep going?
(א) וַיְכֻלּ֛וּ הַשָּׁמַ֥יִם וְהָאָ֖רֶץ וְכָל־צְבָאָֽם׃ (ב) וַיְכַ֤ל אֱלֹהִים֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֑ה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשָֽׂה׃ (ג) וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃
(1) And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God finished God's work which God had made; and God rested on the seventh day from all God's work which God had made. (3) And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it God rested from all God's work which God in creating had made.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, a great Jewish scholar wrote in his book, The Sabbath, “Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in our soul.” Heschel is speaking specifically about the weekly Shabbat here, but one can also relate these ideas to the agricultural Shabbat of the S’hmita.
(10) And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and gather in the increase thereof; (11) but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of thy people may eat; and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.
Sometimes, it's good to break the rules.
(א) בָּעֵ֨ת הַהִ֜וא אָמַ֧ר ה' אֵלַ֗י פְּסָל־לְךָ֞ שְׁנֵֽי־לֻוחֹ֤ת אֲבָנִים֙ כָּרִ֣אשֹׁנִ֔ים וַעֲלֵ֥ה אֵלַ֖י הָהָ֑רָה וְעָשִׂ֥יתָ לְּךָ֖ אֲר֥וֹן עֵֽץ׃ (ב) וְאֶכְתֹּב֙ עַל־הַלֻּחֹ֔ת אֶת־הַדְּבָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר הָי֛וּ עַל־הַלֻּחֹ֥ת הָרִאשֹׁנִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֣ר שִׁבַּ֑רְתָּ וְשַׂמְתָּ֖ם בָּאָרֽוֹן׃
(1) Thereupon Adonai said to me, “Carve out two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain; and make an ark of wood. (2) I will inscribe on the tablets the commandments that were on the first tablets that you smashed, and you shall deposit them in the ark.”
(דברים י, ב) אשר שברת ושמתם בארון
תני רב יוסף מלמד שהלוחות ושברי לוחות מונחין בארון
אמר ריש לקיש פעמים שביטולה של תורה זהו יסודה דכתיב (שמות לד, א) אשר שברת אמר לו הקב"ה למשה יישר כחך ששברת
"...which you broke, and you shall put them in the Ark” (Deuteronomy 10:1–2).
Rav Yosef teaches a baraita: This verse teaches that both the tablets of the Covenant and the pieces of the broken tablets are placed in the Ark, together.
Reish Lakish says: Sometimes cancelling Torah is its foundation, as it is written: “which [asher] you broke” (Exodus 34:1). The Holy Blessed One said to Moses: Yishar koach that you broke the tablets.
- What is the significance of carrying around the broken pieces of the first tablets in the ark with the second, whole set?
- How do you understand Resh Lakish's statement here? What does it mean? How do you understand the image of God thanking/praising Moses for breaking the first tablets?
100 Blessings a Day
- From the list above, which types of blessings are the most meaningful to you?
- The Mishneh Torah tells us to say a blessing of thanks whether we want to or not. Does the value of the blessing change if we say it with a full or broken heart?
- How do you think that saying 100 blessings each day helps us?
Rabbi Deborah Waxman, "Keeping the Faith: Resilience in the Jewish Tradition"
Judaism, writ large, is about resilience. Across the span of Jewish history, Jews have experienced extensive trauma, even catastrophe, and we have survived – as a people and as a civilization. After each catastrophe, the prevailing paradigm was inoperable: we no longer knew how to understand ourselves in relation to God, to other Jews, and to other peoples. And, throughout our history, Jews have ultimately transcended catastrophe after catastrophe. We have repeatedly breathed new life into the Jewish people and the Jewish civilization and we have found pathways toward repair. From trauma, we have had to heal. We have had to recover and re-vision, regenerate and re-seed vital Jewish life. We have found ways to cultivate resilience, both individually and collectively.
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Our cultural capacity for renewal is built on a foundation of individual practices that encourage and even commands it. “Every day creation is renewed,” the Jewish morning liturgy teaches. If we open ourselves to this teaching, we can see that every day, we have an opportunity to recommit ourselves to living out our values. The Talmud teaches that we should say 100 blessings a day. We could see this mandate as legalistic and oppressive, or we could see it as an invitation to engage in ongoing gratitude practice, to raise up the interconnectivity and abundance that undergird our daily lives even when our days are filled with challenge and loss. Jewish time is structured to end each week with Shabbat – literally, a ceasing of activity – that can help us to step out of the demands and preoccupations of the week and support us in refreshing both our bodies and our souls. And of course, the cycle of the Jewish year builds toward the Yamim Nora’im, the High Holidays, when we at once reset the clocks on the year and, through the practice of teshuvah, repentance, reset the moral compass of our lives.
https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/keeping-the-faith-resilience-in-the-jewish-tradition/