Go ahead laugh at your circumstances!
Do you ever find yourself in a really tough situation and suddenly you sit back and laugh? I didn’t think so. It’s not a common occurrence. But, maybe it’s a practice we ought to adopt. Try this; the next time things are really going rough, you are frustrated with G-d that He is putting you through a seemingly overpowering challenge; you are ready to pull the hair out of your head… Now, sit back with a cup of cold lemonade in your hand, and LAUGH! Laugh at the situation, laugh at how one day you’ll look back and see how you were overwhelmed by the circumstances and how you thought it would never work out and it did. Or laugh at the how one day you’ll realize that this challenge was a tremendous blessing to help you get to a place you didn’t even know you had the potential to reach. Oh, and the more you laugh the better you will deal with the situation.
How do I know this? For that please bring your lemonade onto the porch and I’ll tell you a story.
It was sometime after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. (We just completed the three week period where we commemorate the final battle for Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple.) Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues were walking towards Jerusalem and had arrived at Mt. Scopus. There below, they saw the site of the destroyed Temple. They tore their clothing in mourning. Later they approached the actual site of the Temple and they saw a fox emerging from the Holy of Holies. Rabbi Akiva began to laugh, while his colleagues began to cry. The Rabbi’s turned to Rabbi Akiva and asked, “Why is it that you laugh?” To which he responded, “why is that you cry?” They answered, “for the Torah states that Jerusalem will be like a plowed field”. To which Rabbi Akiva said, “it is precisely for that reason that I laugh. For I see that just as the prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction has come to pass, so too the prophecy of its rebuilding will come to pass”. Rabbi Akiva was not belittling the destruction; rather he was calling on a deep inner strength, conviction and faith in G-d that in time G-d’s master plan will be revealed.
When we are facing challenge the normal thing is to tear our clothing and cry. Why G-d? Why me? Why this? And that’s ok (after all even Rabbi Akiva tore his clothing). But after you are done crying and fretting, step back and call on your inner faith and confidence. This is the faith and confidence that G-d is a good G-d that wants only the best for us. That our situation is really a blessing in disguise and in time it will be revealed. And that until that time our strong faith alone is reason to celebrate, the fact that we have a G-d that loves us and cares for us and wants to help us to greater heights.
Enjoy your lemonade and have a great week.
Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman
