This week, we celebrated fifty years since the IDF liberated our historic Western Wall in 1967’s Six-Day War.
After 2000 years of restricted – or no - access, the Jews had finally regained this hugely-significant site. It was a historic moment, and many of the soldiers were overwhelmed by emotion. Some began to cry.
I once heard that a vehemently atheistic soldier also broke into tears. His comrades asked: "This is a HOLY – religious - site; what makes YOU cry?"
The soldier responded: "I am crying because I’m so disconnected from my history and people that I feel no need to cry."
Very profound.
Depending on our particular skill-set, we can sometimes appreciate a brilliant scientist’s intellect, an ingenious artist’s expression, etc. We can grasp, acknowledge and even be appropriately humbled, because we recognize the treasure that’s before us.
But sometimes we don’t ‘get it.’ Sometimes we can’t really comprehend the profundity of what’s going on before our eyes. We know it’s there, because others see it; we’re just not equipped to ‘get it.’
We want to appreciate the beauty, but ‘wanting’ is as far as we can go right now.
The faith corollary is: “I don’t believe, but I’d love to.”
This is actually a very profound spiritual place. When I pro-actively use my personal skills to grasp something, my grasp is limited to my tools’ capacity. By contrast, when I acknowledge/appreciate based on my LACK of a skill-set, my appreciation comes from my heart, and is limited only by capacity of my heart and soul.
The religious soldier appreciated the Wall using specific tools – knowledge, training etc – and his inspiration was commensurate to those tools. The non-religious soldier used no tools. He just felt. He didn’t really know what he felt, but he could appreciate that something special was going on. So he cried.
Both soldiers felt humbled. But, on the humility spectrum, the non-religious soldier’s seems deeper and more profound. More essential.
When it comes to our relationship with G-d, this humble place – “I want to want” - has distinct beauty; because it’s ultimately only through humility that we embrace G-d’s deeper existence.
As we celebrate a unified Jerusalem, and as we approach the Holiday of Shavuot, let’s explore, analyze and feel.
But then let’s just feel humbled by G-d’s embrace, whether we fully ‘get it’ or not.
You can ‘get’ a lot out of that.