Parasht Eikev 5769--Making Meaning

I do not necessarily believe that things happen for a reason. I do believe that we make reasons out of the things that happen. Viktor Frankl, a philosopher, Holocaust survivor, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, teaches that it is up to us to decide how we will respond to what life brings us.

Frankl teaches that there are those who see daily life as an opportunity and a challenge. These people see life as a test of their inner strength. They seek to grow spiritually beyond themselves (Frankl 93). Frankl writes, "One could make a victory of [his/her] experiences, turning life into an inner triumph, or one could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate" (Frankl 93). Yes, we make reasons out of the things that happen. Whether life brings us pain or joy. Whether we find ourselves at low points or high. We hold the power to make meaning.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Eikev, Moses explains the meaning he has made out of the Israelites’ troubled wandering in the desert. Nearing the end of his life, he looks back on what he has experienced and suggests the following to his people:

Remember the long way that your God Adonai has made you travel in the wilderness these past forty years, in order to test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep the divine commandments or not. [God] subjected you to the hardship of hunger and then gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, in order to teach you that a human being does not live on bread alone, but that one may live on anything that Adonai decrees. The clothes on you did not wear out, nor did your feet swell these forty years. Bear in mind that your God Adonai disciplines you just as a parent disciplines a child. Therefore keep the commandments of your God Adonai: walk in God’s ways and show reverence. For your God Adonai is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey (Deuteronomy 8:2-8).

According to Moses, the years of desert wandering served two purposes: To test the people’s faith and to help the Israelites come to know and rely upon the divine (see The Torah, A Women’s Commentary, “Parashat Eikev”). This is certainly one way to interpret the desert narrative. Interestingly, in another portion of the Torah (Numbers 14:26-38), God articulated a different meaning behind or reason for these same circumstances. God suggested that the forty years of wandering were meant to punish the Israelites, not to the test them or teach them.

There are a number of significant lessons here:

1. The Torah suggests that there can be multiple reasons for and meanings made out of a singular event.

2. God does define the reason or the meaning out of what life brings. We too can articulate reasons and meanings.

3. As we grow and change, our understanding of circumstances and events can also change.

This past week, you should have received your High Holy Day packet from TIOH. The packet, like the first sprouts showing in a newly seeded garden, reminds us that the High Holy Days will soon be upon us. As we spend the weeks ahead reflecting on our lives, let us open ourselves up to the possibilities of new meaning. Let us welcome the opportunity to reflect and recalibrate. Let us understand that we are blessed with a most precious gift, the gift of interpretation. Let us cherish this gift and may it bring us wholeness (shleimut) and peace (shalom).