Sheltering in a safe room while living through a story of biblical proportions
* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
In all of the Zoom sessions I’ve given over the past few days, people have expressed the same worry over the chat: how to cope with their personal challenges during this war. It’s abundantly clear that something tremendous is transpiring here that, with God’s help, is steadily moving us forward; but day-to-day, it’s just so hard.
Here are some of the comments that I’ve received:
“I’m sitting in the safe room with my two sick children and my husband is away in the reserves. ”
“My family vacation has been canceled.”
“I’m having panic attacks.”
And then, on the other hand, I’ve been receiving messages saying—
“We are writing a new chapter of Jewish History.”
“It feels like Moshiach is on his way.”
“My heart is bursting with pride and hope.”
Yesterday, Michal Shneur, a parenting counselor, shared these words of wisdom: Don’t try to stifle your personal challenges because of the big picture, and at the same time, don’t ignore the big picture because of your personal pain. This is called embracing complexity. We also call this Judaism.
It is not selfish to care about your own safety and mental health. The truth is that we are able to juggle all of these different feelings inside us at the same time. You are allowed to pray for relief from your own “small problems,” while praying for the salvation of the nation. God is with us throughout this process. In the book of Tehilim (Psalms) God says about the Jewish people: “I will be with them in their distress,” that is, in every distress and sorrow.
But it is not merely about integrating two conflicting emotions. Our awareness of the “big picture” also gives us strength to cope with our personal challenges. Our Sages explain that we are currently going through the birth pangs of the Messiah; we are not in the hospice unit but in the delivery room. The pain may be excruciating but, in the end, it will lead to the birth of something greater than ourselves that will give meaning to all that we have endured along the way.
May we merit to experience this salvation soon.
