When Moses descends Mount Sinai and
sees the Jewish people dancing around the golden calf,
he throws down the two stone tablets —
the Divine gift of Gd’s wisdom—
shattering them beyond repair.
Gd's sacred words now lie in fragments on the ground.
A tragedy of epic proportions.
But these broken pieces were not discarded, buried, or ignored.
Instead, they were carefully gathered and placed in the holy Ark.
Later, Moses ascends the mountain again, pleading for forgiveness for the Jewish people.
Moses then writes a second set of tablets.
These were whole and intact.
They were later also placed inside the Ark.
Thus, the Ark held both the broken and the whole, side by side.
Perhaps the Ark is a reflection of our human hearts.
Within us, we are called to hold both brokenness and wholeness,
pain and joy, loss and love.
Like the Ark, our hearts have the capacity to expand—
to hold both the broken and the whole.
We are meant to experience life fully, in all its extremes.
To love deeply is to open ourselves to both the greatest joy and the deepest pain.
As Tennyson wrote, "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."
When we lose someone we love—physically or emotionally—
we must learn to live in that valley of grief.
Loss remains a part of us forever.
We mourn what once was, carrying our aching losses in our hearts.
Broken heartedness is an unavoidable part of being human.
And yet, Gd also grants us moments of profound joy and wholeness.
We are blessed with life, with unique gifts, and with the ability to embrace our own journey.
Perhaps our capacity for joy is directly proportional to our ability to feel pain.
The deeper the sorrow, the greater our appreciation for life’s blessings.
Can we allow ourselves to cry deeply and laugh fully?
Hopefully, we are blessed with people to share in both our sorrows and our joys.
There are times when we shed tears of loss, loneliness, and heartache.
And there are times when we weep from gratitude, joy, and connection.
True love, real life, demands both.
Being broken and whole at the same time is what makes us human.
It is the paradox of life.
May we find the courage to embrace both fully.
Shabbat Shalom and much love,
Elissa
Opmerkingen