What jewish wisdom sustains you as we enter this new year?
Psalm 121 –
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains. From where will my help come? My help comes from God, who made heaven and earth. The Eternal will not allow your foot to give way. The One who guards you will not slumber. For the Guide of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. The Eternal is your Keeper; God is your Shade at your right hand. The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. God shall protect you from all evil and will keep your soul always. The Eternal God shall guard your going out and your coming in, from this time forever more.”
This year was the 5-year anniversary of my father’s death. And a week after the anniversary, we lost my father-in-law. It is human to feel very alone during these life changing losses. We all experience grief differently and it is sometime even difficult to share grief with those that have lost the same person. The Jewish community knows that you need a community, a minyan to read the mourner’s kaddish and you need community to get you through these losses. Even with the help of the community, Psalm 121 is a reminder that God is always with me; and I can also gain strength with God and myself during life’s difficult times. As I take care and support myself with God’s help, I can then help support other’s who are going through their own difficult moments in life.
But this is also sustaining for me not only in life’s darkest moments but everyday moments, such as work. It’s easy for me to gain resentment because my colleague or my boss didn’t introduce me to that client or staff me on this project. Haven’t I done so much for this person; don’t they owe me? Of course not. I am not the center of the universe. And these individuals are going through their own journey. They have helped me in many other ways and for that I am grateful. When I trust and have faith in God and my own divine gifts; I know that things will unfold in the way they should.
L’shana Tova.
View Sinai’s 5783 Rosh HaShanah service sheet by clicking here.