Parashat Shelah Lekha, which we are reading this week, features the tale of the twelve "spies" sent by Moses to check out the land of Israel while the Israelites are still wandering in the desert.
Ten of the twelve return with a bad report: the inhabitants of the land are fierce giants, and they would surely overwhelm the Israelites. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, are optimists who declare that the Israelites should march into the land and take it. The storyline of the Tanakh (Hebrew bible) goes with the optimists; Joshua himself leads the people into the land.
No matter how bleak the future may look, no matter how many declare a particular task impossible, there is always a chance that the glass may be at least half full. It is always a good idea to listen to life's naysayers, just so that you might have the opportunity to prove them wrong. Say yes!
Showing posts with label optimism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label optimism. Show all posts
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Optimists Emerge Victorious
(Devar torah for my son's berit milah, 6/19/2009)
One of the beautiful things about fatherhood is the opportunity to consider what goes on in a baby’s head. What could s/he possibly be thinking? All the more so, what is going through the baby’s head right before birth, and right after?
In this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Shelah Lekha, we read about the twelve scouts that are sent by Moses to scope out the situation in the land of Israel. The Israelites are wandering in the Sinai desert, preparing to enter the land, but they need to know what their chances are of conquering the Canaanite peoples that reside there. Ten of the scouts come back with a pessimistic report, but two of them, Caleb and Joshua, are optimistic. The pessimists outweigh the optimists 5-to-1, despite the fact that God has already more or less predicted the outcome.
So it might be easy, looking at today’s world, to be pessimistic (and I’m not going into why right now; I’ll leave that for you to discuss at breakfast). But little Zev Isaac could have popped his head out, looked around, decided that it’s just not worth it, and turned right back around to return to the womb, much to the consternation of the assembled medical personnel, not to mention my wife.
But of course, he did not do so. He joined the rest of us out here to become a willing participant in our berit, our covenant with God. This serves as a reminder to me that it is only we adults who understand suffering and disappointment; that life includes a healthy dose of misery along with joy.
But for a baby, there is only the good. There is only the full glass of optimism. There is only the simple wonder of going from darkness to light. There is only the beginning of Creation, when God says, “Let there be light.”
I suppose that it is this simplicity that causes us to continue bringing children into this very complicated world. The child’s optimism trumps the adult’s pessimism.
One of the beautiful things about fatherhood is the opportunity to consider what goes on in a baby’s head. What could s/he possibly be thinking? All the more so, what is going through the baby’s head right before birth, and right after?
In this week’s Torah reading, Parashat Shelah Lekha, we read about the twelve scouts that are sent by Moses to scope out the situation in the land of Israel. The Israelites are wandering in the Sinai desert, preparing to enter the land, but they need to know what their chances are of conquering the Canaanite peoples that reside there. Ten of the scouts come back with a pessimistic report, but two of them, Caleb and Joshua, are optimistic. The pessimists outweigh the optimists 5-to-1, despite the fact that God has already more or less predicted the outcome.
So it might be easy, looking at today’s world, to be pessimistic (and I’m not going into why right now; I’ll leave that for you to discuss at breakfast). But little Zev Isaac could have popped his head out, looked around, decided that it’s just not worth it, and turned right back around to return to the womb, much to the consternation of the assembled medical personnel, not to mention my wife.
But of course, he did not do so. He joined the rest of us out here to become a willing participant in our berit, our covenant with God. This serves as a reminder to me that it is only we adults who understand suffering and disappointment; that life includes a healthy dose of misery along with joy.
But for a baby, there is only the good. There is only the full glass of optimism. There is only the simple wonder of going from darkness to light. There is only the beginning of Creation, when God says, “Let there be light.”
I suppose that it is this simplicity that causes us to continue bringing children into this very complicated world. The child’s optimism trumps the adult’s pessimism.
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