Years ago, I was standing with a friend, a seasoned businessman, as his 38 year-old son walked by. Nodding toward his son, he muttered to me: “My son needs to understand that the stock market doesn’t always go up”.
It was an interesting insight for me.
You don’t understand life until you grasp the human journey’s comprehensive rhythm; until you appreciate that living is about ups and downs.
Ups and Downs. If anyone thinks they’ve experienced only one, they’re either mistaken or need to wait just a wee-bit longer; the other will come soon enough.
We all have both.
But ‘down’ is where we feel the pain. Stress isn’t pleasant, and problems are….problems.
But that is life; and, until Moshiach arrives, problems will continue to disrupt our lives.
Yet problems are part of life. And so much of life depends on how we deal with problems.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, was brutally imprisoned - for spreading Judaism and helping Jews - by Stalin’s regime.
Yet, years after reaching freedom, he would occasionally try to recapture the horrible experience, mentally transporting himself back to the gulag and its pain.
Why? Not because he enjoyed the pain and suffering. But because he valued the character, the strength of Principle, he encountered within himself. The Rebbe never looked for pain, but when it came his way he didn’t waste effort on blame and self-pity; he faced it with dignity, and it became a growth experience.
Gulag aside, thank G-d, do we face our own problems with dignity? Do we learn lessons for growth, turning our stress into exercises for the soul?
It’s an important ingredient for a meaningful life.
And now is the time.
Because the world has a Divine rhythm, a flow of energy, of ups and downs.
The Jewish calendar reflects that rhythm. While time - from a Jewish perspective - generally exudes a spirit of positivity and joy, there’s also a stretch of time – three weeks to be exact – when the calendar turns more somber, guiding us to focus on the ‘downs’.
Today, Thursday, 17 Tammuz (July 9) is a fast day, commemorating the invasion of Jerusalem. In three weeks, we’ll fast again; it’ll be 9 Av – known as Tisha B’Av – when we’ll remember the destruction of the Temple.
It’s a time to look at our lives, our families, our communities and our world, and notice the destruction. It’s a time to soak in what’s NOT going right.
But it’s not about marinating in the negative; it’s about growing from the destruction..
When we acknowledge the bitterness, and strengthen our vision for the road ahead, we’ve engaged life and turned it into a meaningful journey.