SHMINI ATZERET

(5764)

TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT THE WORLD

This morning we read the book of Ecclesiastes.  Tradition ascribes this to King Solomon, cynical and suffering in his old age.  He began by crying out about the hopelessness and vanity of life.  "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.  There is nothing new under the sum."  No book of the Bible is gloomier.

Later the book takes a much more upbeat note.  "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God has accepted thy works."  It is a joyous acceptance and celebration of life.  How can one man, in one book, have two such different views of life?

There are two views of the world.  One is depressed, gloomy, hopeless, seeing life as sad and purposeless.  Such people are angry, or to use the good Yiddish word, Verbissen.  The second view is upbeat, finding joy and a sense of purpose even in little things.  Such people find delight in the world.  The first view drains the energy from the world.  The second gives energy into the world.

There is a story told of the great violinist Yitzhak Pearlman (although I have also heard it attributed to Paganini.)  Once, as he began to play at a recital, the string on his violin suddenly broke.  He could have thrust his violin down in anger.  Instead, he transposed the music and played beautifully on three strings.  The audience broke into a huge applause.  Afterwards someone asked him, "Why did you go ahead and play with a broken string?"  He replied, "That is what an artist does - play with the instrument you are given."  So it is in life - we play with the instrument we are given.

I meet a lot of people who see the world as a sad gloomy place.  On Yom Kippur I made a comment about those whose view of the synagogue is, "I went to get High Holiday tickets and had a fight with someone in the office.  They were not nice to me.  That is why I hate Judaism."  Several people came up to me after that sermon and asked, "Rabbi, were you talking about me?"  Dennis Prager speaks of the broken tile syndrome.  A person lies in bed looking at tiles in the ceiling.  Ninety nine of them are aligned perfectly, but one tile is broken.  The person keeps staring at the broken tile, is unable to get it out of his or her mind.  Some of us just see the negative.

I see it in professional sports.  It was the sixth game of the National League Championship between the Cubs and Marlins.  The Cubs should have won that game.  There was a fan interference, a Marlin got on base, and the energy seemed to fade from Wrigley Field.  The Marlins went on to score eight runs, and win the Championship.  (Note - As a Marlin fan, I will say that with this new energy, we went on to win the World Series!)  Negativity takes energy out of a room, whether a family, a synagogue, or a baseball stadium.

I meet a lot of negative people in my work.  Often they are people dealing with the sadness of growing older, with physical infirmities and family losses.  Yet, how often does their own negativity contribute to their loss?  On Sukkot, we take four species.  The etrog has a beautiful smell and taste, and stays freshest the longest.  The myrtle and palm branch have either taste or smell.  The willow branches have neither taste nor smell, they give off no joy.  And they are the first to dry up and whither.

It is a mitzvah in Judaism to look for joy in everything we do.  We must look for reasons to compliment and not complain.  We call this mitzvah hakarat tov, recognizing the good.  As we begin our Yizkor services, we need to remember that life is too short.  In the end, even King Solomon found joy in living.  We can do no less.