I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share an excerpt from an article by Rabbi Menachem Weiman entitled ‘Shades of Gray’, which speaks to the challenge and opportunity of our times. You can see the full article here - https://aish.com/52831872/.
Some things in life are clearly bad, like idolatry. Some things in life are clearly good, like feeding the poor. In Numbers 19:2, the words "chukat hatorah" are used, meaning "decrees of the Torah." The word for decree, "chok" is related to the word meaning "to carve out of stone." Since the Almighty is eternal and perfect, His decrees are "written in stone." Life, on the other hand, and the finite world He made, is not carved or simple. It is often complex. And some things, oddly, are a curious mixture of good and bad, light and darkness. This can cause us confusion.
The ultimate truth (which we are not privy to at this stage) is that everything is eventually good. All events and things come from the Infinite Being and are therefore by definition good. But we don't live in that realm. We live in a realm where we must choose between good and evil. We must try to define our situations in order to act in accordance with God's will, or the greatest good. […]
Before the first transgression of Adam, the world was a very different place. Mankind was pure and holy, and temptation was really an external drive. The fruit that Adam and Eve ate was not merely the symbol of temptation, it was temptation itself. Kabbalah teaches that when that fruit was ingested by primordial man, humanity became tainted. Humanity became a mixture of light and dark, causing all future decisions and temptations to become less clear. Yet with the Flood, the Tower of Babel, the Exodus from Egypt, things became clear once again to a certain extent. Light and dark took separate places, and spiritual choices were easier to make -- until the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion when things went into a new level of light and dark -- i.e. gray. Our present time period contains so much confusion and mixture that it's extremely difficult for people to make the right decisions. […]
And that is precisely what makes us great: When you live in a world of confusion and you are still able to make the right choices. When you have 357 channels on your TV, but you still turn it off to study wisdom. Abraham didn't have that test. Isaac didn't have the test of video games. Jacob didn't have [Netflix]. Although we want to get as close to God as we can, our distance is what gives us a chance of meriting to see the ingathering of the exiles and coming of Moshiach. When you live in a generation far from spirituality, every correct decision you make means so much more. […]
Have a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org
