As you may know, I have a new grandson. (To be precise, he was quite new when I wrote this; I have no idea how old he is now that you are reading this, as blogs in the cloud go on and on and on....) In any case, you can learn more about his birth in another blog post (hint: follow this link).
His two oldest siblings were just a bit disappointed (until they met him, or course; then their hearts melted). His oldest sibling was disappointed because she was hoping for another sister. His next oldest sibling was disappointed because he had noticed a pattern -- girl, boy, girl, boy -- and thought it obvious that the pattern should continue. They both learned big lessons from this experience. She learned that you don't always get what you want. He learned that thinking something is obviously true doesn't make it true. Truthfully, all I can say is that they had those lessons presented to them. Did they learn? Only time will tell.
I, of course, was not disappointed at all. First (and last, and everything in the middle, because it's really the only important thing), because he was born with all his parts and is healthy, bli ayin ha'rah. Besides that, though, he actually did restore balance to the world. Until his birth, I had a more female than male grandchildren. Balance has been restored. My higher perspective -- seeing all my descendents -- is what allowed me to have a broader understanding and to see how this birth was precisely what was needed to bring about that balance.
True enough, I am way over thinking this event; the lesson is true nonetheless. Shall we take this up a notch? Avraham Avinu was presented with 10 soul wrenching challenges in his life. Each of them served to shape both Avraham Avinu and also the Jewish People; two are particularly relevant to this discussion: At age 99 he was commanded to give himself a circumcision. At age 137 he was commanded to sacrifice his son. He performed both with enthusiasm and love for his Creator. However, there was a tremendous difference in his initial reaction to those two challenges. When commanded to sacrifice his son -- his only son, the son he loved, Isaac -- he got up before daybreak to run to perform the commandment of the Creator to sacrifice his son. (Don't worry, he both father and son survived; but each was also quite literally sacrificed.) When commanded to circumcision himself, though, he first consulted with his close friend Mamrei. (See Rashi to B'reishis 19:1)
Seems odd, no? One mitzvah he consults a friend, another mitzvah he jumps out of bed early to get started. I heard an answer once that when it came to circumcision, Avraham Avinu felt he was changing himself in a way that separate him from the rest of humanity and make it harder to deliver his message. Perhaps true, but sacrificing his son would also make it hard to deliver his message. Avraham Avinu had been preaching that the Creator loves us and certainly does not want child sacrifice his entire adult life. Now he is going against his entire teaching! How will people listen to him now?!
I would like to suggest that both challenges carried with them the very real concern that his actions would nullify his message. So what happened? Avraham had learned and re-learned this lesson that HaShem has a higher perspective. He had worked diligently to gain an ever broader understanding as his own experience elevated his perspective. But he had also worked diligently to believe that his own understanding was always perforce limited. As his faith grew, so did his (self)confidence in his understanding of what the Creator wanted, though always knowing with certainty that he didn't really understand at all why the Creator wanted it.
His two oldest siblings were just a bit disappointed (until they met him, or course; then their hearts melted). His oldest sibling was disappointed because she was hoping for another sister. His next oldest sibling was disappointed because he had noticed a pattern -- girl, boy, girl, boy -- and thought it obvious that the pattern should continue. They both learned big lessons from this experience. She learned that you don't always get what you want. He learned that thinking something is obviously true doesn't make it true. Truthfully, all I can say is that they had those lessons presented to them. Did they learn? Only time will tell.
I, of course, was not disappointed at all. First (and last, and everything in the middle, because it's really the only important thing), because he was born with all his parts and is healthy, bli ayin ha'rah. Besides that, though, he actually did restore balance to the world. Until his birth, I had a more female than male grandchildren. Balance has been restored. My higher perspective -- seeing all my descendents -- is what allowed me to have a broader understanding and to see how this birth was precisely what was needed to bring about that balance.
True enough, I am way over thinking this event; the lesson is true nonetheless. Shall we take this up a notch? Avraham Avinu was presented with 10 soul wrenching challenges in his life. Each of them served to shape both Avraham Avinu and also the Jewish People; two are particularly relevant to this discussion: At age 99 he was commanded to give himself a circumcision. At age 137 he was commanded to sacrifice his son. He performed both with enthusiasm and love for his Creator. However, there was a tremendous difference in his initial reaction to those two challenges. When commanded to sacrifice his son -- his only son, the son he loved, Isaac -- he got up before daybreak to run to perform the commandment of the Creator to sacrifice his son. (Don't worry, he both father and son survived; but each was also quite literally sacrificed.) When commanded to circumcision himself, though, he first consulted with his close friend Mamrei. (See Rashi to B'reishis 19:1)
Seems odd, no? One mitzvah he consults a friend, another mitzvah he jumps out of bed early to get started. I heard an answer once that when it came to circumcision, Avraham Avinu felt he was changing himself in a way that separate him from the rest of humanity and make it harder to deliver his message. Perhaps true, but sacrificing his son would also make it hard to deliver his message. Avraham Avinu had been preaching that the Creator loves us and certainly does not want child sacrifice his entire adult life. Now he is going against his entire teaching! How will people listen to him now?!
I would like to suggest that both challenges carried with them the very real concern that his actions would nullify his message. So what happened? Avraham had learned and re-learned this lesson that HaShem has a higher perspective. He had worked diligently to gain an ever broader understanding as his own experience elevated his perspective. But he had also worked diligently to believe that his own understanding was always perforce limited. As his faith grew, so did his (self)confidence in his understanding of what the Creator wanted, though always knowing with certainty that he didn't really understand at all why the Creator wanted it.
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