By Rabbi Yisroel Shusterman
This week’s Parsha Perspective is dedicated in memory of Elka bas Zisel OBM
Dedicated in memory of Leah bas Rochel OBM
What does it mean to be visionary, to have a vision for
your life and pursuits?
In a basic sense, this means conceptualizing goals and
objectives; it means considering future potential and focusing on a target for
growth. It means recognizing that “now” isn’t all that there is.
“Now”- disconnected from the future and its possibilities
- can be stale and aimless.
“Now” is our reality; but vision can breathe commitment,
animation and hope into that reality.Vision brings optimism and direction; it
is the North Star which guides the efforts that actually bring our dream to
life.
The problem is that with the passage of time it often
becomes more difficult for the realistic person to continue dreaming.
Disappointments eventually take their toll on the human psyche.
Which raises the question: When does one learn to adjust
one’s expectations and recognize that, that dreams are. . . just dreams?
Never.
While we should always be acutely aware of reality, warts
and all, we can never stop believing in - and working toward - a brighter
future.
Consider this: Our Holy Temple, along with our entire
Jewish commonwealth, was destroyed by the Romans almost two thousand years ago.
It’s been rough ever since, and we’re fully aware of our
reality. Every year, on Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av, our national day of
mourning, (this year, observed on Sunday, July 22) we remember the destruction
of our two Temples, the dispersion of our people and recognize the pain of our
own times.
Yet, interestingly, the preceding Shabbat (Shabbos, July
21) is always observed as the “Shabbat of Vision.” The Shabbat’s reading from
the Prophets begins (with the opening chapter of the book of Isaiah) with the
words Chazon Yeshayahu, the “Vision of Isaiah” regarding the destruction of the
Holy Temple.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the eighteenth-century
legendary Chassidic master, taught a deeper reason for this moniker “Shabbat of
Vision.” Every year, he explained, on the Shabbat before this collective day of mourning, G‑d shows us a Vision of the
Future. We are shown a vision of a rebuilt Temple, a reconstituted people and a
better world.
G‑d
equips us for the mourning by ensuring that hope—the Vision—never dies; this
Shabbat ensures that our sobering recognition of “now” doesn’t smother our hope
for the future.
We can’t see this divinely granted vision with our
physical eyes; but if G‑d is
showing it to us, it must be
resonating somewhere within us,
in our souls.
So this Shabbos I will prepare to tackle reality on Tisha
B’Av by first searching myself to find G‑d’s vision of a beautiful future.
Will you join me?
(Excerpts from Chabad.org by Rabbi Mendy Herson)
May you have a meaningful and uplifting Shabbos!
If you would like to dedicate the weekly Parsha
Perspective in honor or memory of a person or occasion, please contact Rabbi
Shusterman at yshusterman@chedermonsey.org
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