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G‑d is my cheerleader.
As I go through my day, I believe that G‑d is counting on me, urging me to make good choices, because—more than anyone—G‑d knows I have the strength to do the right thing.
Sure, G‑d presents me with moral struggles, but as a rule, He doesn’t set me up for failure.
But it has happened.
Yes. I know of one occasion on which G‑d presented us with a test which He knew we would fail.
And, strange as it may sound, it was actually done out of Divine love . . . But let me start at the beginning.
The Jews were liberated from Egypt, and then spent seven weeks of introspective self-betterment to prepare themselves for receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai.
The Jews perceived the world’s Divine purpose with unparalleled clarityWhen they finally gathered at Sinai, they were in an elevated frame of mind, spiritually evolved, and prepared for the most incredible event in all of history: G‑d’s giving of the Torah.
It was an incredibly real experience. The Jews perceived the world’s Divine purpose with unparalleled clarity, and genuinely embraced the Divine.
But that’s what makes it so difficult to understand what happened next. A mere forty days after the Great Experience, the Jews collaborated to fashion a Golden Calf, saying, “This is your god, O Israel . . . who brought you up from Egypt.”
Sounds insane.
After such an interface with the Divine, how could they have transferred their loyalty to an idol?
It’s an age-old question, and the Talmud responds by telling us that the Jews were, in fact, above this unseemliness. They shouldn’t have made that mistake.
So what happened?
G‑d set them up. G‑d gave them the “perfect storm,” bringing together a precise collusion of human weakness and incredibly alluring self-interest so that they would make the wrong choice.
It was a set-up.
But the critical question is: why?
Because they needed to taste failure, and they needed to experience the beauty that comes from turning failure into growth. It was the only way to complete the Sinai experience.
They needed to experience the beauty that comes from turning failure into growthWhen G‑d gave us the Torah, He was giving us a picture of reality as it is meant to be. To me, the Torah is like the top of a jigsaw puzzle box. It gives you a vision that helps you put life’s objects and experiences—the “puzzle pieces”—in their respective places.
We got that at Sinai. But we needed a crucial element to bring real meaning to the picture.
The experience of failure. And the experience of choosing to grow from our mistakes.
Because Torah is life.
And that’s life.
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Latest Comments:
I want to respond to a woman who did not get a job above who asked this question. IN the word G_d is ODD itself, aurally, and we all can hear this. We do know, that somehow, everything happens for a reason, but it seems often totally cruel, and we do break down, and good people experience a lot of loss, and pain in life, and if they're sensitive, they feel it, that cutting edge, the razor's edge.
Why is this happening? We all ask this question. We can answer after the fact, when something happens that really changes the way we feel, when one terrible disappointment somehow resolves in meeting someone special, who makes our lives so shining great, and without that detour, maybe we would never have met them, so it becomes a story in our personal pantheon of stories. Or we find another direction, and this turns out to be so ultimately good.
We cannot always second guess G_d, but maybe, if we hold tight to G_d's steering wheel, even in such despair, the phoenix rises. We know this.
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What you wrote is beautiful, Dr. Simcha Baker. And bakers are about bread, and what is rising, as in yeast. And EAST is the gate to the door of Jerusalem, that will open for the Moshiach.
I see a beautiful story, that circles all of our lives, each story made for us, for our unique selves, and for those who do not make it, who do suffer, and we question, well I must believe as Anne Frank, I know it's going to come out all right.
I Just Do. My faith is solid. And I am so rooted in this belief, and it seems to follow my name as Ruth to Route, to Root, and to the tree of life, as we are all branches and all climbing.
To orchestrate, is to also, say, This symphony has a conductor. It's really about the music. Keep singing your beautiful song!
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Dear Ruth,
I see 'failure' as an object lesson to guide us to better things, including and specifically ourselves. You mentioned 'Gold' in your last response. That is scary - you see G-d has already given me my 'gold' - My wife's maiden name is 'Gold'. Who says that G-d rules and orchestrates everything that happens? I DO!!
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Thank you for your beautiful words. I believe, the Moshiach is here, within us all, and the message, of Unity, is right here, on these pages.
I just read an article about Gold meeting Gold in the Boston Globe, and it does seem we're all in this together, or should be, even those with disparate views and ways of being, as long as it's love, and about love.
We need to eschew what's hate, what's cruel and reach for the gold. And strangely, it's about GOLD these days, wherever I go. So many new little stores, saying, Bring us Your Gold and we will redeem this.
Maybe in life itself, as we live it, the message is quite extant, and it's a matter of Simcha, of Simchas Torah, and that yearning to dance together one day in the streets. I feel it. I studied Jewish mysticism, Kabalah, at a synagogue where the practise is to dance in the streets this most joyous of holidays, and I did.
Thank YOU. For Simcha, being YOU, and for Simcha, being all of us!
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To Ruth:
I also had a wine bottle shaped as a viola with the word 'Simcha' on it. By the way, I was born a long time ago just after Simchas Torah (Bar Mitzvah Parshah 'No'ah'). We are all G-d's People - connected in many inscrutable ways - all is in the Hands of G-d. May we be smart enough to realize that so that we allow Moshiach to arrive as soon as possible and be deserving of all the blessings G-d will provide.
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I saved a wine bottle shaped as a viola with the words Simcha! on it.
Simchas Torah my son's bar mitzva
Simcha my son in law's diminutive for my sweet daughter.
Simcha!!!
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Failure comes from being human. We are human beings - we fail. The real failure is that we continue to fail - does that make us less or more human. The 'Golden Calf' episode is one of many where we disappointed ourselves in our potential to serve G-d as well as the Creator Himself. However, enigmatically, that (was) (is) (and will continue) to be what G-d requires in His Creations - not angels who only follow G-d's direction BUT beings who could choose to believe and follow OR choose to go their own way and frequently fail. We are judged by G-d as a SOCIETY of beings. We all count! Remember: One step back, two steps forward. That is what we must do to grow spiritually. Let us strive to follow G-d's desire for us to be truly His servants and, thereby, truly worthy to receive His blessings.
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There is a song that goes, The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls/terminals/ and echo in the sounds of silence (Simon and Garfunkel).
I am saying that to examine the poets, their writings, to examine the songs, to examine, music, writing, all aspects of human creativity is to read, in deepening astonishment, a story that is within, that has layered meanings, and, as in pulling a veil, we are gifted to see more and more of a cosmic puzzle made for each and all of us.
This is beautiful. This is genius. This is vast. This involves us all. The beauty is in embracing a compassionate truth and moving towards and into the direction that is about this, in small ways, within our lives, and as mirrored in big ways, in the political and other arenas. But Small is Big.
As mite and might are related aurally.
Take heart, move with heart, and we can do this together!
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Since tikkun is the motive force at some point the gathering brings completion & something very new! A new state of consciousness.
Despite the burden of sadness, injustice and pain in this world, I think there is visible movement towards this, at this time in our history. Anonymous asked a question above about the fine line and I think this is a very important question.
Perhaps the answers are too deep to contemplate, but it seems that merger is the ultimate understanding, and that at some cosmic level there has to be a blurring of distinctions, though we are gifted apparent choice, and the choice has to be movement up a ladder of increasing ethical consciousness, being G_d's will in constructing the opportunities we each are confronted with, in negotiating life.
There is a paradox here, in understanding that we are all of us Created, and this means were are deeply part of the greater Whole, and yet the Whole, is greater than the sum of its parts. We can understand this in metaphor.
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Anonymous, Kingston:
My source is as posted in my original message. You are correct in what you wrote. What I have written is an interpretation of Hebrew. Sadly, I am not a Hebrew scholar, but are you? I will gladly accept correction from a Hebrew scholar.
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