SHAKE IT OFF AND TAKE A STEP UP

A climber fell off a cliff, and as he tumbled down, he caught hold of a small branch.

"HELP! IS THERE ANYBODY UP THERE?" he shouted.

A majestic voice boomed through the gorge:

"I will help you, my son, but first you must have faith in me."

"Yes, yes, I trust you!" cried the man.

"Let go of the branch," boomed the voice.

There was a long pause, and the man shouted up again,

"IS THERE ANYONE ELSE UP THERE I COULD TALK TO?"

Until 31, J.K Rowling was a single mom on welfare. Currently, a British novelist best known as the author of Harry Potter – the best-selling book series in history, which eventually became the best-selling movie series in history.

When she was shopping it out, she was so poor she couldn’t afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the 90,000-word novel, so she manually typed out each version to send to publishers. It was rejected dozens of times until finally Bloomsbury, a small London publisher gave it a second chance after the CEO’s eight-year-old daughter fell in love with it.

She once said, “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!

Moral: Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is too not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!

This is how the great master Reb Yisroel of Rhizhin explains the two heart-stirring verses in Psalms chapter 13:

Said Reb Yisroel, these are not two redundant verses; rather it is a question and an answer. King David cried, “How long will You hide Your face from me?” that is the question.

And the answer he gives is: “As long as I will find my solutions in my soul.” As long as I will “have the solution,” I will not be able to experience G-d’s full presence. Only when I will surrender to Him completely, will I get to see His face and countenance.

It is true in every aspect of life. People in recovery know full well, that as long that they thought they have the solution to their problems, and they need not strip completely from all their protective gear, they can’t experience the miracle of recovery, for they do not allow G-d into their lives. Only when you realize you have nothing left but G-d, is when you can actually touch G-d. Only when your ego, your own self, removes itself from the experience, can you experience the light of the transcendent, of the infinite.

Jacob, the Talmud says, is the one who instituted the night prayer, Arvit. Abraham gave us Shacharit; Isaac—Mincha, and Jacob gave us Maariv.

What this means is that Jacob is the one who taught the Jewish people how to find G-d in the night, in the thicket of darkness. This is Jacob’s great legacy to his children. Precisely when you feel most alone, G-d is still with you, giving you the courage to hope and the strength to dream. Like the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark, Jacob bequeathed to his children the capacity that when it seems that I have help from nowhere, downtrodden and in the gutter—I can completely fall into G-d’s embrace.

That is why Jacob says: “What? I will give up hope from my Creator? I will never give up hope!” He should have just said: “I will never give up hope!” Why the question and the answer? Because Jacob was perturbed with himself for entertaining the thoughts that he is hopeless, penniless, and destitute. But then he realized that this was part of his salvation: By feeling that there is no hope, that is when he can experience real hope.

This would become his defining story. In this week’s portion, Vayishlach, the Torah states: “Jacob remained alone. And a man wrestled with him until dawn break.” What is the meaning of this? Jacob is alone, wrestling with profound forces attempting to defeat him. Don’t we all have those moments of “night,” when we must wrestle difficult demons in the form of depression, grief, regret, emptiness?

But Jacob taught us how to “pray Maariv,” how to turn to G-d at the very moment when we feel there is nothing left. He taught us how to have hope precisely at those moments when we are on empty; as Jacob says it when he wakes up from his sleep: and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’

This is the meaning in that strange verse in the final portion of the Torah:

“The Heavens Are the abode for the G-d Who precedes all, and below the world are arms...”

What is the meaning of this enigmatic statement that “below the world there are arms”? Rabbi Nachman offered the following moving interpretation. If we had to categorize all of humanity into two groups we could say that there are the people who are comfortable in the world, and there are people who find no place for themselves in our universe. There are those who just have their two feet etched confidentially in the ground. They know who they are and they know what they want, or even if not, they are not bothered by these questions.

But there are others who struggle with deep psychological, emotional, and spiritual dilemmas; who experience deep anxiety, pain, and grief; who suffer from addiction and other internal maladies. All these people, somehow never feel fully present in our world; they never feel grounded and stationed solidly on the earth. Psychologically speaking they feel like they are falling off the ball of the planet.

It is to these people who Moses speaks and says: below the world there are arms. When you feel like you are “falling off” the planet, that you have no place in our world, that you don’t belong here, you should know that below the world there are arms that will embrace you when you “fall off.” These are G-d’s “arms” in whom you can fall right into and let out all your pain and anxiety.

But here is the catch: Only those who “fall off” the face of the world can experience this embrace. As long as you feel secure in your own being, as long as you feel confident in your own ego, you can’t feel the transcendent embrace of G-d. Only when you have nothing else to hold on to, can you experience those loving arms which are always present below the world for those who fall off.  

This is the moment when the prayers of all Jews – like a single person with a single heart – are with the people of Israel in the land of Israel, the people and the land that give us so much strength and pride. Let us be strong and strengthen one another, until a city whose name means peace, at last, becomes a true home of peace, and Moshiach comes to redeem us from a long, bitter and bloody exile, may it be now!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky