What does it mean to be visionary, to have a vision for your life and pursuits?
In a basic sense, this means you conceptualize goals and objectives; you consider future potential and focus on a target for growth. You recognize that “now” isn’t all there is.
“Now” – disconnected from the future and its possibilities – can be stale and aimless.
“Now” is our reality; but vision can breathe commitment, animation and hope into that reality.
Vision brings optimism and direction; it is the dream, but it should also be the pro-active inspiration driving us to bring dreams to life.
The problem is that, with the passage of time, it becomes more difficult for the realistic person to continue dreaming. Disappointments eventually take their toll on the human psyche.
Which raises the question: When does one learn to adjust one’s expectations and recognize that that dreams are……just dreams?
Never.
While we should always be acutely aware of reality, warts and all, we can never stop believing in – and working toward – a brighter future.
Consider this: Our Holy Temple, along with our entire Jewish Commonwealth, was destroyed by the Romans almost two thousand years ago.
It’s been rough ever since, and we’re fully aware of our reality. Every year, on Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av (this year corresponding to Tuesday, July 16), we mournfully remember the destruction and recognize the pain of our own times.
Yet, interestingly, the preceding Shabbat is always marked as a “Shabbat of Vision.”
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, an eighteenth century legendary Chassidic master, explained that every year on the Shabbat before our collective day of mourning, G-d shows us a Vision of the Future. We are shown a vision of a rebuilt Temple, a reconstituted People and better world.
G-d equips us for the mourning by ensuring that hope – the Vision – never dies; this Shabbat exercise ensures that our sobering recognition of “now” doesn’t smother our hope for the future.
I can’t see this Divinely-granted vision with my physical eyes; but if G-d’s showing it to me, it must be resonating somewhere in my soul.
So this Shabbat, I’ll prepare to tackle reality on Tisha B’Av by first searching myself to find G-d’s vision of a beautiful future. I'll try to keep my eyes wide open.
Try it.