Meaningless Occurrences – Parshat Haazinu

Nobody wants to do something for nothing. That doesn’t mean that we need payment for everything we do. It does mean that what we do needs to have some significance or meaning for us. If it doesn’t, we get frustrated, bored and/or burnt out. It doesn’t make a difference if it's a project at work, doing laundry at home or practicing your jump shot. If you feel that there is some worth to your activity, you will do it and do it happily. If not, not.

Likewise we don’t like that stuff happens to us for no meaning. If it's good, fine – we'll take it happily. Who doesn’t like a good windfall? However, if it's not good, if there is suffering involved, we would probably rather opt out.

The Torah recognizes this as well. Nearing the end of his life, Moshe tells the people in Parshat Haazinu, that "this thing is not an empty object."1 Quite fascinating is the comment on this phrase by the turn of the 19th century French Chief Rabbi David Zintzheim.2  Rabbi Zintzheim, who lived through the turbulent and often dangerous times of the French Revolution, pointed out that the entire phrase mentioned above seems superfluous. Why would anyone think that the Torah has anything 'empty' about it? The previous portion in the Torah spoke of the suffering of the Jewish people. Rabbi Zintzheim therefore explains within that context: "There should not be any emptiness coming out of the calamity (the thing)." Sometimes when going through the kind of suffering the Torah describes, there may be a sense of surrealism and emptiness. Perhaps a person will even sense an existential vacuum and that there is no meaning to the suffering – no sense and no purpose.

To this point, Rabbi Zintzheim says, the Torah talks – in every seemingly meaningless suffering, let no one think that it is meaningless. There is always a reason and a purpose for the suffering. We may not recognize it right away. It may not be obvious. It may take years for us to see it (as it happened for me and only partially). But it is there.

There are no meaningless occurrences – there are only occurrences for which we haven’t yet found the meaning. This is not to say that the search for meaning will be easy. But it is worthwhile.

Meaning can be found in everything in life, says Dr. Viktor Frankl. It is up to us to find it. "We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation…What then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph…When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."3

That change is in our hands. An empowering thought for the new year.

Notes

  1. Devarim 32:47
  2. Rabbi Zintzheim's work was called Shlal David
  3. Frankl, Viktor – Man's Search for Meaning, p. 116

Have A Great Shabbat!laughing

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