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Dedicated to the complete recovery of Rabbi Yosef Yitschak ben Rivka
Imagine working in some place for years. It’s a very difficult job and you are not only tired but exhausted, disappointed and drained. Then comes someone who promises you a perfect world, where there will be equality, freedom and good salaries. Would you believe him, or would you have already lost all hope? Would you allow yourself to believe, taking the risk of being disappointed, or would you just accept your fate, stopping to dream about a better future?
This is what happened with our ancestors in Egypt. After many years of terrible slavery, Moses suddenly bring new hope, with a promise from G-d about their liberation and their coming to the Promised Land.
How did the Jews react? The Torah tells us that “They did not hear the words of Moshe, because of [their] shortness of breath and because of [their] hard labor.” (Exodus 6:9)
Our Sages explain to us that shortness of breath is not to be taken literally. In Hebrew, the word Ruach (breath) also means spirit. In other words, the Israelites did not listen to Moshe because they had lost their spirit, their hope.
This also happens to children who do not believe that they will manage one day to become good students and have more than 70 at their exams. Therefore, they don’t have the energy or motivation to try to reach higher.
This also happens when someone wants to go on a diet but thinks that it is a lost battle from the start.
This also happens when we suddenly have the desire to become better and more patient people, or to start doing something good for ourselves or other people. But then we stop ourselves because we think we will not achieve it anyway.
Rabbi Mendel Futerfas said: “If you loose money, you have not lost anything, because money comes and goes. If you lose your health, you have lost half, since you are not the same person as you were before. But if you lose hope, you have lost everything.”
Let’s listen to Moses who comes to take us out from our personal Egypt. Let’s keep the hope that things can change and make practical steps to improve the situation. When someone tries to so something good, even something small, G-d helps him big time!
Shabbat Shalom,
Hanna