Today is Day 25, which is three weeks and four days of the Omer . . . Ha-yom chamisha v'esrim yom shehem shloshah sh'vuot v'arba'ah yamim la-omer.
THE OMER INTERSECTION: Nitzach with Nitzach, the Endurance of Endurance
In order to endure in the long-term, sometimes our short-term endurance requires a bit of a break from the task at hand. Today's intersection requires us to consider the short-term decisions we endure in order to set ourselves up to endure in the long run. It's pretty appropriate since on this Shabbat, we read about the idea of the Sabbatical year. Every 7th year is to be a year of rest of the land and every 7th year of groups of 7 years (49th year) is to be a jubilee in which all debts are put to rest and people/property are restored to an original state. These times of rest may not actively lead towards any individual's goal, but the idea is important for the society being built in the Torah to live by its values. Short-term breaks from the big goals help us to refresh ourselves For some more thoughts on this, here is my "Blast of Torah" from our Temple E-blast this week:
“And you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to your family.” – Leviticus 25:10
Many of our youth today are growing up on video games. Whether they know it or not, most of these games present theological perspectives, when we look hard enough. Quite a few of these games rely on reincarnation as a means to helping the main character complete his or her objective. They have multiple lives, presenting more than one chance to get it right and move on. Often, these games require an omniscient being (usually the individual playing the game) to help direct or guide the characters towards the necessary path. And in some games, the player has the power to build or destroy mountains, shape landscapes, and even dictate laws of physics.
One theological idea that nearly every video game has in common is the reset button. Whether or not the game player is happy or disappointed with the way things have been going, with one press of the reset button on one’s game system, all is restored back to its original state of being. With the re-start comes another opportunity – to re-create what had already been done, to improve on it, or to try an entirely different set of actions with the hope of leading to a new result. Sometimes, wouldn’t it be wonderful if LIFE had a reset button?
According to our Torah, it should. Reading the above passage from Leviticus, we learn that the Torah’s perspective on society should reset itself every fifty years. Those who have found themselves to be enslaved need to be freed. Those who have found themselves to be overly indebted need to be relieved, and those who have been separated from their families must find return.
Now, speaking practically, these are incredibly difficult situations to impose on our society today. But perhaps the ideal behind this Torah vision is worth exploring. This verse emphasizes that while we may be suffering through our personal trials and tribulations of today; there is a possibility to get beyond them. Hopefully it will not take the fifty years of our Torah, but if we take these words to heart, they remind each of us to ensure that we are taking active steps to achieve a fresh start from those parts of our lives that are bogging us down.
When we do so, we move ourselves closer to being able to experience that jubilee one day comes from getting a reset in the parts of our lives that we’d like to change. And the hope would be that upon getting our fresh starts, we can learn from our past experiences and have the freedom to choose our new path along the best video game that was ever invented: LIFE.
One theological idea that nearly every video game has in common is the reset button. Whether or not the game player is happy or disappointed with the way things have been going, with one press of the reset button on one’s game system, all is restored back to its original state of being. With the re-start comes another opportunity – to re-create what had already been done, to improve on it, or to try an entirely different set of actions with the hope of leading to a new result. Sometimes, wouldn’t it be wonderful if LIFE had a reset button?
According to our Torah, it should. Reading the above passage from Leviticus, we learn that the Torah’s perspective on society should reset itself every fifty years. Those who have found themselves to be enslaved need to be freed. Those who have found themselves to be overly indebted need to be relieved, and those who have been separated from their families must find return.
Now, speaking practically, these are incredibly difficult situations to impose on our society today. But perhaps the ideal behind this Torah vision is worth exploring. This verse emphasizes that while we may be suffering through our personal trials and tribulations of today; there is a possibility to get beyond them. Hopefully it will not take the fifty years of our Torah, but if we take these words to heart, they remind each of us to ensure that we are taking active steps to achieve a fresh start from those parts of our lives that are bogging us down.
When we do so, we move ourselves closer to being able to experience that jubilee one day comes from getting a reset in the parts of our lives that we’d like to change. And the hope would be that upon getting our fresh starts, we can learn from our past experiences and have the freedom to choose our new path along the best video game that was ever invented: LIFE.
THE OMER CHALLENGE:
For today, since it is Shabbat, TAKE A BREAK! Sometimes this is easier said than done, but at the very least, for some project/issue/concern that has been consuming us, let us take a step back and let it sit for a day - take a Sabbatical from it.
Shabbat Shalom!
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