Do You Know Where You Are? - Parshat Bereishit

"Do I know where I am? Of course I know where I am," you answer. So let me explain and rephrase the question. We have just completed the extended High Holiday season. We have prayed for a better future. We have asked for forgiveness for our misdeeds. We have moved into a temporary dwelling and danced with the Torah. All the holidays and accompanying hullabaloo are over. Now, taking that into account, and as we prepare for the routine daily life again, we can re-ask the question – 'do you know where you are?'

Let us take a deeper look at the question. In this week's parsha, Parshat Bereishit, Adam hides in the Garden of Eden. When God wishes to speak with him, he calls out "Where are you?"1 Is it possible that the omniscient God does not know where Adam is hiding? No. Rather the question is more than just a question of latitude and longitude. The Malbim explains that Adam is being asked to check where he is on his own personal ladder. "What level are you on Adam?" Did eating from the Forbidden Fruit give Adam a sense of greatness or rather a fall from grace? Where are you Adam?

While studying logotherapy,2 my teacher, Dr. Teria Shantall, herself a student of Dr. Viktor Frankl, used this question as well to call us out. We all have something to give to this world by virtue of who we are. Do we appreciate the gifts we have? Are we stuck in focusing on our problems and not on our purpose? "Where are you?" The world is awaiting you and your unique gift! Come forth. Show yourself.

It is not a simple task. It requires patience, insight and a belief in the uniqueness of yourself. If it is not there now, do not fret. “What man is, he is not yet but ought to be and should become,”3 said Dr. Frankl. Where or what we are now is not yet what we truly are and can become. More still awaits us – if we but allow ourselves to open to experience it.

This is the time of the year to ask this question. The holidays are over. The summer is over. Do you know where you are? More importantly, do you know where you can be?

Click here for another logoParsha article on Bereishit 

Notes

  1. Bereishit 3:9
  2. Logotherapy is a school of psychology founded by Dr. Viktor Frankl. One of its most basic premises is that man is motivated mostly by a search for meaning in his life. His most famous book is Man's Search for Meaning, a worthwhile read.
  3. Frankl,

Have A Great Shabbat!laughing

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