The Jew on the Move



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    Shifra Vepua

    The Jew on the Move

    From the desk of Manhattan Shliach Rabbi Sholom Schapiro: The greatest selling point today is comfort. Take a look at so many commercial advertisements, trying to sell things from cars, to health insurance, to beauty products. They all play relaxing music, show waterfalls, butterflies, or some other bucolic image, and wait for you to be seduced by the spirit of relaxation the image conveys. All we want, they seem to say, is to be in a place where we can just zone out and get comfortable. All we seek is to feel truly relaxed • Click to Read

    The greatest selling point today is comfort. Take a look at so many commercial advertisements, trying to sell things from cars, to health insurance, to beauty products. They all play relaxing music, show waterfalls, butterflies, or some other bucolic image, and wait for you to be seduced by the spirit of relaxation the image conveys. All we want, they seem to say, is to be in a place where we can just zone out and get comfortable. All we seek is to feel truly relaxed.

    Or is this what we are really looking for? Consider a man who sits on his exercise bike, but instead of cycling feverishly, he is relaxing. He’s moving at a leisurely pace and feels entirely comfortable. Another person is on a treadmill, taking a stroll. The pace feels so relaxed, she’s hardly moving at all. These two people are so comfortable, they must be thrilled. They have found that sweet spot, that elusive condition we all seek, that place where they are perfectly comfortable. But, of course, they are not happy at all. Because they know that unless they pick up the pace, unless they feel a little tension, they are wasting their time. If someone is trying to do exercise but doesn’t break a sweat or feel the stretch, he is not doing anything at all.

    This is true in all of life. Our comfort zone is comfortable, but in it we aren’t challenged and don’t move forward. In this week’s Parshah, G-d tells Abraham to leave his city for an unknown land. We are not talking here of a young man who had to leave his roots in order to find himself. By that time, Abraham was able to look back upon a lifetime of fruitful–indeed unprecedented–achievement. As a young child, he discerned a greater truth in the workings of the universe and came to recognize the One G-d. In the years since, he’d battled the entrenched paganism of his time, bringing many to a life of monotheistic belief and morality. Yet, now, at seventy-five years old, he was told by G-d to leave everything that was familiar in order to progress further in his spiritual attainments.

    This instruction, in fact, is the first thing the Torah tells us explicitly about Abraham (the stories above are found in the Midrash). For this command–“Go”–defines the essence of a Jew; his life, his very existence, is a journey; he is always in motion, always striving higher. Thus, with G-d’s first recorded words to the first Jew, did the Jewish journey begin. “Lech Lecha,” G-d told Abraham. “Go from your land, from your birthplace, from your father’s home.” The only way the Jew accomplishes something is when he is moving–moving beyond himself, testing his limits, challenging convention. Comfort is nice, but it does not get us anywhere. The only way we can accomplish something spiritually is by stretching ourselves beyond what feels comfortable, reaching beyond our “safe zone.”

    The Jewish journey is all about taking the extra step forward. If one Torah class a week feels “just right,” then it is time to start two. If keeping kosher at home feels “okay,” start keeping kosher outside, too. If, in any aspect of your spiritual life, you feel perfectly comfortable, it is time to shake things up a bit. Remember Abraham who, at 75, after a lifetime of audacious dedication to truth, began a new journey. For the first Jew, the status quo was never good enough. The next step was always a step higher.

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