Hope - The Language of the Soul

At my desk at work I have a little post-it note hanging above my desk phone where I have written the words of Philo’s of Alexandria circa; 1st century BCE:

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

These are not the only words I live by, but they remind me that no matter how annoying or irritating any individual is that I encounter in my daily life, that they too, have their own dark night that tries the soul. Those words are not the only concept that I try to live out my life with. There is also Tikkun Olam, which roughly translates from Hebrew as “repairing the world” with acts to make the world a little better place than the world you inherited.

All of which brings me to an email that I received tonight from someone who is not known to me personally, but who brought my attention to Elem’s Light a Flag of Hope and asked that I consider a making a donation. I admit the subject line grabbed my attention: Calling all Jewish Bloggers. Now I am not Jewish nor am I an Evangelical Christian, and I prefer to characterize myself as a collapsed Catholic though I do have a Star of David T-shirt with the words “Six Days, Bitch” that I wear around the house to torment my neighbors. I saw another one the other day that I have to get. It read “Guns & Moses”.

Now there are many worthy organizations all over the world who are dedicated and worthy of our time, support or money. Elem is simply one of many organizations that are attempting to repair the world one tear at a time. That is something that I can relate to. The cost a white light bulb for the Israeli Flag of Hope is only US$2.50 and US$4.50 for a blue one. I couldn’t decide if I wanted blue lights or white lights of hope, so I just donated a lump sum and let the Elem people decide where my lights should be best lit.

This will be my third year that I will not be attending Pesach or Passover at my best friend’s home. Oddly enough, I find that I dearly miss celebrating the holidays that are not really my own, and the one I miss the most is Pesach. Someone once remarked to me that most Jewish holidays could be summed up as; 'They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat' which is perhaps why I can relate so well. When I first met my friend we instantly hit it off. She was a single parent at the time and owing to a rather cruel twist her family had sat Shiva on her which is the Jewish ritual of mourning for the death of a love one.

In one of those ironic turns we discovered that her Father came from the same place and neighborhood that my great grandfather had come from, and yet, we met a world away in another time and place. One of the hardest things she found was to celebrate the holidays with just her daughter and herself. It was not that there were not others among her acquaintances where she would be more than welcomed to join, but the experience of sitting at their Seder, intensified her own sense of loss and made it just that much harder to bear. She has struggled all through her life with dyslexia and felt that it hindered it her in having a proper Seder for her daughter.

So I enlisted the Tribe – trust me, we are loud enough to fill anyone’s home and leave them deaf for weeks. So for years we have celebrated all the High Holidays, and I, have stood in her place when it came time to read. Now my friend has reconciled with her family and when Pesach begins, she and her daughter will be with those they belong most with in this world – the one’s who love them the most. My friend had lost hope of ever reconciling but in the end hope was found when it was least expected.

I cannot fix the whole world but I can manage a tiny tear, now and then, and I can manage to help light a few bulbs in a corner of the world that deserves hope, and for all those, who have felt that they have lost hope.