A Time to Dance, A Time to Cry (adapted from Rabbi Y. Tauber)
A man is dancing at the wedding of his only child. He's a good dancer, but never before, and never again in his lifetime, will his dancing attain the grace and expressiveness it now displays. In fact, all his talents, capabilities and qualities are currently at their zenith: his mind is at its keenest, his loves and his hates are at their most passionate. Put a brush in his hand, and he'll paint you a picture which exacts the utmost of his artistic potential.
The mystics use this parable to demonstrate their definition of "joy": joy is revelation. Joy unearths latent potentials we never knew existed, and amplifies revealed potentials to levels we never thought possible. Joy is an effusion of self that spills over to places and achievements far beyond our natural horizons.
If joy is the revelation and expansion of our inner self, then sorrow is our concealment and contraction. In sorrow we retreat, silence our outward expression, and shrivel to our narrowest sliver of selfhood.
Little wonder, then, that chassidic teaching frowns upon sadness. An old chassidic saying goes, "Sadness is not a sin, but its effect on the person is worse than any sin's." We were sent to this world not to be, but to do; not to merely exist, but to achieve. To retreat into the self is to reverse the flow of our mission and negate our purpose.
And yet, there are times when we're told to be sad. In fact this week is the saddest week in our calendar. On Tuesday – Tisha B’av - we will mourn, fast, and shed a tear for the centuries of persecution and bloodshed that fill the pages of our history. We will sit close to the ground and mourn the loss of our holy temple. We will pray with fervent hope for the rebuilding of our spiritual capital. (CLICK HERE to learn more about this day)
Why the sadness? What purpose does it serve? How does this sadness help us fulfill our mission?
The answer is that without these times of sorrow, our joy would flow false. It is crucial that, on occasion, we stem the flow, retreat back to the source, and make the needed adjustments and revisions. Soul searching, self-evaluation, correcting our trajectory, and taking the time to think about what we’re missing – are vital ingredients for the ensuing time of joy to have potency.
(Of course, there's always the danger that the withdrawal may become a vortex, the self a black hole sucking deeper and deeper in, allowing no escape. If joy has its hazards, sorrow is the more dangerous by far.)
And so we have Tisha B’av. The day when we focus inwards; when we pull the bow tightly towards our hearts and focus. And in this way, we ensure that when we let our “arrow” soar with joy again, our free spirit will be focused in the right direction, produce healthy and bring us an abundance of blessing.
Let’s focus and add one more mitzvah to our repertoire this week.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick
