To Triumph – Parshat Mishpatim

Much of logotherapy is about how to live our lives – be authentic, experience your life, be aware, be responsible to self and others. And, of course, to locate and live according to the unique and individual meaning we all have in our lives.

 

This week’s parsha adds another idea to help us in living a meaningful life and being responsible to others. The Torah discusses how we are expected to treat gentiles in our land. “And you shall not mistreat a stranger, nor shall you oppress him.”1 And shortly after in another verse, “And you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, since you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”2 Anyone who is helpless and living by us is deserving of protection by the Torah.

 

Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch underscores the point made by these verses. There are two principles being outlined here, he writes. The first is that of equality in the eyes of the Law. The second principle he identifies describes the love and the kindness to be afforded to anyone who is in need. 

 

Some days are simply difficult and challenging. As I write these lines, I read the news reports of the return of 4 hostages, held by terrorists, in coffins. Among the four were a 4-year-old and a 9-month-old child. Their mother was also among the four as was a senior citizen. They were alive when taken hostage on October 7, 2023. These were people in need. They should have been afforded care and protection.

 

They were murdered by terrorists instead.

 

There are so many different emotions going through me today. I feel relief for the families who can now have some closure, anger at the terrorists for killing them, disgust at the “ceremony” the terrorists performed in returning them, disappointment, painful sadness, frustration and much more. The basic inhumanity these terrorists showed was surreal. Outwardly they are part of the human race. Their behavior, however, is subhuman.3

 

Amidst this inner turbulence, I did not have clarity about what happened. However, I would like to share two ideas I saw today that helped me a bit in contemplating today's events - one from a student and another from my teacher’s husband. The student, Anat Sela wrote the following message on her Facebook page: “On this difficult day, I am directing my awareness to remember the meaningful and beautiful lives they had. Whether their lives were long or short, their lives included growth, softness, love, effort and happiness.”4 Dr. David Shantall wrote about today’s events in his weekly email message: “But could it not also be a day, at last, that we will unite together in our grief; our common history; our common future.“ 

Reading their words did not totally calm me on this difficult day. However, they demonstrated a belief in the future by saying we must find a way to continue our lives while standing upright despite all we have been through as a nation. These two people were able to look at today’s events and find something about it that gave them (and me) hope, strength and perspective.

 

I am directing my awareness to remember the meaningful and beautiful lives they had. Whether their lives were long or short, their lives included growth, softness, love, effort and happiness. (Sela)

 

Their responses reminded me of a concept Dr. Viktor Frankl discusses - the defiant power of the human spirit – a human power we all have upon which we can draw while facing difficult, emotionally challenging tasks. From where do we draw this strength? It is, says Frankl, in our noetic realm. It is already present in each of us.

 

And so, the two responses I mentioned may not have the answers to all my questions about today. But through their ability to look past today's events from the past to the future, they show that the defiant power of the human spirit can triumph and offer some comfort - even on difficult days.

 

In loving memory of all the casualties of terrorism during the past 502 days.

 

 

Image generated with AI

 

Footnotes

  1. Shemot 22:20 (Translated by Chabad)
  2. 23:9 (Translated by Chabad)
  3. Frankl discusses
  4. https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1955365471653640&id=100015406178466&rdid=KBVVwNVnpfNeSAkT#          Originally in Hebrew – translation mine.

Have A Great Shabbat!laughing

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