On Monday evening, my children came home from school and asked me if I had heard what had happened in Connecticut on Friday. I had hoped that they wouldn’t hear the details of the story, but realized that they had heard plenty from their friends, so I took the opportunity to have a discussion, answer their questions, and allay their concerns. The next morning as we were walking into school, one of my children asked me if there are similar murderers living in Massachusetts.
I looked at him and realized his young and innocent mind was thinking about the tragedy in the context of his own little world and was innocently wondering about his own safety and school. I made sure that we had another discussion before he went into class to make him feel calm and safe and I also reassured him of the security measures their school has and told him, don’t worry, G-d is looking after you.
As the week wore on every discussion and meeting that I had led back to the tragedy as the story remains at the forefront of everyone’s mind. The country is reeling, tears are flowing, and our minds shudder each time we think of the terrible tragedy that happened just one week ago in Newtown, Connecticut.
In this week’s Torah portion, there is a very powerful and emotional story of the last argument between Jacobs’s sons and Joseph and their ultimate reunification. In addition to learning from Joseph and the way he forgave his brothers, there are many other powerful components to the story, one of which I would like to share.
After twenty-two years, Jacob who is an older and more fragile person finally makes his way down to Egypt and is reunited with his son Joseph. It is the climax of the story, the moment Joseph and Jacob have been waiting for, for many years, and as Jacob appears Joseph embraces his father and weeps and sobs. There is no mention of an equivalent emotion on Jacob’s part, which seems rather strange and uncharacteristic of Jacob. So the Midrash explains and tells us that Jacob was in the middle of reciting the Shema and he could not interrupt in the middle.
This story begs the question, why did Jacob not say the Shema before he met up with Joseph or after he met up with Joseph, why at the peak of the reunification does he have to start praying?
The sages and Chassidic teachings explain that a very powerful idea is contained within this story and I think that this teaching is relevant at anytime in life, but especially in light of the recent events that we are all reeling from.
Among the many human talents we are gifted with, are our emotions, which have the ability to help us soar with enjoyment, shed tears when needed, and show empathy and determination when needed. Yet we all know, that the powerful emotions that we feel in moments of great joy, celebrations, tragedy, or distress, do not last forever. In fact, over time our emotions tend to dissipate and become a much smaller expression and sometimes a shadow of what they once were.
As Jacob prepared for perhaps the most dramatic moment of his life, the reunification of his long lost beloved son, he was very much aware of this aspect of his emotions. Both Jacob and Joseph were awash with thoughts about the present and about the future, they were thinking about the impending exile in Egypt and the long journeys that the Jewish people were destined to go through, and at the same time, they were both full of joy at the thought of the reunification.
As Jacob thought about all of this, and dealt with the tremendous rush of emotions that were both happy and sad at the same time, he did not want to let this moment and this energy just slip away into history. He felt an urge to channel this energy into something positive, to channel the energy into something that would not only be an expression of joy and tears, but one that would have an impact on the future of Joseph and his brothers and in turn, the entire Jewish nation. Thus, at that moment, the moment that was perhaps the most powerful emotional moment in his life, he stopped and said the Shema, as he declared his faith in G-d and shared the message of responsibility, education, belief, and living a truly ethical and G-dly life with Joseph and his brothers and all of his descendants. He knew that doing so at a moment of such intense emotion would perhaps convey the message in a way that was almost unmatched by anything else he could do and show them.
Friends, Newtown, CT is on the screens this week and it will be for a few more weeks, but unfortunately in today’s fast paced world of rapid media, the story will fade into history and only the families and the community will be left to pick up the pieces and live with the grief for the rest of their lives. Perhaps as we read the story of Jacob and how he dealt and channeled his emotions, we must think about the lesson and message of this story and what it tells us in America 2012.
The tremendous sentiments that we all feel cannot become just one more piece of history and be a featured story of the year in Time Magazine. We like Jacob, must look at this terrible tragedy and after we cry, we must act. We must make a bigger push to ensure that these kinds of events do not repeat themselves, and we must ensure that the goodness and moral values of society grow and improve so that the world becomes a better place. Our society is having many important conversations on grief counseling, security, gun safety, mental health care and whether to have armed guards at the doors or not.
Yet at the same time as the important national conversation, we must use the tremendous emotions that we all feel, to focus on increasing goodness in our world, on increasing the sense of responsibility that we have to each other, and on helping children and individuals become better people. In doing so we will ensure that not only are our children and society excelling academically or in their professional lives, but they are also excelling and growing as good human beings.
In addition to our tears, if there is one action we can do for victims of Newton, it is to act with determination to make the world a better place of goodness and kindness.
May G-d comfort all the mourners of Newtown, CT, and comfort this grieving nation, and may we be like Jacob and channel our tears, pain and grief into making the world a safer place and a better place for our children and society.
Good Shabbos