“We will not live in perfect harmony, because there is no such thing in this world. We can only promise to do our best and live our lives; dear God, that is all we can promise in truth…We’re neither pure, nor wise nor good, we’ll do the best we know. We’ll build our house and chop our wood and make our garden grow.”
Click here to view this video performance of Make Our Garden Grow – Candide
These words of wisdom come from the opera “Candide” – based on a book by Voltaire. Candide tells the story of a naive young man who travels the world. His journey involves experiencing hardships, eventually leading Candide to question how to be optimistic in a world filled with pain. Candide explores themes of faith and meaning and comes to the conclusion that all we as humans can do, is “the best we know”.
I am reminded of Candide as this week we read from Parashat B’har-B’chukotai, which teaches us how to nurture and care for the earth we have inherited. God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites that every seventh year, the land shall observe a Sabbath of complete rest called, “sh’mita” and to refrain from actively working the land. After a forty-nine year period, (seven rounds of seven sh’mita years) a jubilee year is to be celebrated. The jubilee year is a period of liberation, restoration, and renewal observed every fifty years. It mandates the forgiveness of debts, release of slaves, and return of land to its original owners. This sacred time involves the land resting, symbolizing a break from the routine of constant work; learning to trust in the natural, organic process the earth offers.
This week I was blessed to celebrate the beginning of my own “year of jubilee” – my 50th birthday. Originally, I had planned on writing about what it means to celebrate a jubilee year, both for the land and for myself.
While I had a wonderful birthday and find tremendous wisdom in this week’s Torah portion, it hardly felt appropriate to make this the focus of this week’s message.
This week, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim – a soon to be engaged couple, were murdered in a sadistic act of antisemitism. They were shot as they exited a Young Diplomats reception, with the aim of bringing together young professionals – Jewish and non-Jewish alike, to talk about bridge-building in the Middle East and North Africa region.
As one who has committed my life to enveloping each individual with as much love and light as I possibly can, terrorism and hate are truly impossible for me to comprehend. How one human can see another human, and want to shoot, torture, rape or mutilate them is something I STILL cannot believe happens in this world. I stand with all of you who do not know what to do with your feelings of shock, anger, disbelief and sadness. I have them too.
And yet with every act of antisemitism that I read about; I viscerally feel more proud to be Jewish. We are a complicated nation, filled with disagreements and certainly many imperfections, yet our light is brighter and stronger than their hate for us, and while terrorists will come and go, our spirit is rooted in ein sof – the infinite One.
What will I do with all of the sadness I feel over yet another heinous act of anti-Semitism? I will love stronger and deeper, and pray with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my might that this nightmare of antisemitism will soon leave the earth forever.
There is much to learn about how to live in our world from Candide. We must remember that it is not a story about happy endings; it is a story about how to make a garden grow in a world full of injustice, horrors and wars. Our job is incrementally, to make life better than it was before. There is no magic wand, only the willingness of millions of individuals to want to “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)
May all of our garden’s flourish from the light of our nation and the love in our hearts, may the hostages be redeemed, and may we never cease in creating the world of our dreams.
Shabbat Shalom and Am Yisrael Chai,
