Hold on my dear editors, before you get all up in arms in self-righteous indignation at my insolence, before you toss this article into your overflowing trash bin, and me with it out the office door, hear me out. G‑d knows more than anyone how much I need His help in my life. I certainly would not want to alienate or anger Him by being disrespectful!
Lately, when a close friend confided that she was diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), I decided to learn a little bit more about this condition.
My research led me to understand that individuals with ADD or ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) as it is now officially called, have problems coping with distractibility, procrastination and prioritization. They also have frequent mood swings, ranging from extreme attentiveness to cold negligence (could that explain why my friend sometimes doesn't call for weeks on end, and other times, several times a day?).
While many refer to ADD as a disorder, nowadays many experts on this topic are seeing it more as a "mode." As one explained, people with ADD often have tremendous advantages, such as "super-charged" creative brains, original out-of-the-box thinking and a perception of details that few of the rest of us would notice (like the tiny patch on my dining room ceiling where the paint is beginning to peel that my friend made sure to point out to me).
The problem, however, lies with their brains' filters—their inability to filter out unimportant or unnecessary details and distractions. Typically, someone with ADD will have so much information accosting him at every moment of his day that he is unable to prioritize, and often essential tasks get sidelined for other less important ones. With so much happening in their brains and the constant deluge of information, they also often find it difficult to pick up on normal social cues—unless they consciously focus on the needs of those around them (maybe that would explain her loudly pointing out the peeling paint just when I was trying to impress a room full of important guests…)
With their extremely detailed brains, people with ADD are often plagued by an unattainable pursuit of perfection, which in turn, prevents them from completing almost-finished tasks, in a vicious cycle of running off to the next thing and then the next… (hmmm, I guess that explains her many job changes…).
Which all leads me back to G‑d.
The Talmud declares that "the kingdom of Heaven is similar to the kingdom of earth"--that the structures of human society and the patterns of human behavior reflect the manner in which the Creator relates to and runs His world.
Everything in our physical world has a spiritual source.
So much so that one of the Chassidic Rebbes was able to identify a physical membrane in the brain, one that was medically unknown at the time, from his understanding of the spiritual realms. He understood that if this existed on the spiritual plane, it must have a counterpart in the physical body of man.
As well, once when an individual who had committed a very severe sin came for a private audience with Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch, "the Mitteler Rebbe," the Rebbe secluded himself for several hours in deep contemplation and somber introspection before responding. He explained that in order to help this individual he, too, had to find, on some level, some subtle, slight trace of that sin in his own character. It took him several hours of soul-searching until he could finally discover some resemblance of the source of that condition, in order to provide the individual with an appropriate path of return.
This story gives me comfort—even great and perfect people can relate to us smaller individuals because on some subtle level, they too experience some degree of the challenges or deficiencies that we have.
And so, I postulate, if the condition of ADD exists in our world, can it not mean that G‑d, the perfect being, at times chooses, for whatever reason, to enter into this mode of behavior in dealing with us?
And that's what brings me to possible subtle traces of distractibility, procrastination and pursuit of perfection in how G‑d chooses to run our world.
Personally, I am unable to fathom all the detailed tasks that G‑d must have on His post-it "To Do" list on His heavenly desk. But one thing that I do know has been His priority, from the beginning of time: to bring our world to a state of perfection and completion, its final redemption. That has been His stated purpose from time immemorial.
Throughout our long history, there have been many times when we felt like…AHHHH, it's finally going to happen. How many times did our nation become enthusiastically hopeful, trusting that G‑d is finally hearing our cries and "tuning in" to our suffering, to once and for all end it?
There were signs that the redemption was coming; there were predictions from great and righteous people of it happening imminently. And the dates came and passed…
We're still here in our bitter exile. And the only explanation that I can come up with is that G‑d is waiting for our world to reach its ultimate perfection. Just when the redemption is about to happen, He gets involved in all the other (minor, in comparison) projects and accomplishments that He wants completed.
So what's the solution?
From what I read, the key for someone with ADD (other than medication, therapy and possible changes of diet), is to come to an understanding of how his brain works, his strengths and his weaknesses and how his behavior is hurting not only himself, but also those that he truly loves. Once he is keenly aware of this, and attuned to the needs and feelings of those around him, he can learn that occasionally he must submit his own perspective and trust those around him.
So, perhaps it is time for us to honestly open up to G‑d. To really express to Him just how keenly we need this finale of His own grand plan. To show Him just how much this waiting is causing us to suffer.
And to ask Him to give up His desire for detailed perfection, and finally just make it happen!