Dear Friend,
Are you SAD?
I know you may be thinking that I seem to be fluctuating wildly.
Last week I was promoting joy.
This week I am asking about being sad.
Earlier this week I noticed a news headline about Seasonal Affective Disorder = SAD.
Apparently, when the winter months come, some people suffer bouts of moodiness or even depression.
It has been discovered that having mood changes as the seasons change it is not an isolated phenomenon. It is widespread enough to be given a name and a treatment solution.
Reading about this disorder this week, seemed so well suited to my own mood.
Coming from the extremely busy, holy and fast-paced month of Chagim of Tishrei, having a ‘regular’ work week was a bit of a shock to the system.
Let me do the calculations.
During the first 23 days of the Jewish month of Tishrei (from October 4 – 26th) we had three holidays at the beginning (two days of Rosh Hashana going straight into Shabbat). Followed by Yom Kippur (on the following Shabbat). Three days at the beginning of Sukkot (two days of Sukkot going directly into Shabbat). Three days at the end of Sukkot (two days of Simchat Torah and Shabbat). Plus, four ‘intermediate’ chol hamoed days. That makes fourteen out of twenty-three days being chagim. Out of the other nine ‘regular’ days, four of them were not really full working days as the Jewish holidays and Shabbat starts at sunset which means from early afternoon onwards you have to be making final preparations for Shabbat and Chag.
Not much ‘regular’ ‘working weekday’ routine going on. Lots of praying, studying, feasting, dancing and camaraderie.
I find it challenging to adjust back to ‘mundane’ life after such an abundance of holidays and Chagim.
When I read the headline about SAD I realized that this was providentially brought to my attention so I could embrace the reality of the transition I was going through.
Upon further thought, I was wondering why that topic suddenly made it to my news feed. When I googled the topic, I found that just last week (in the middle of the holiday of joy of Sukkot) a book was printed about this very topic. ‘How to Winter’ is the title of the book and it talks about ‘harnessing your mindset to thrive in cold, dark or difficult times’.
Norway is used as the testing ground for making the best of long dark winter nights.
To me this is such special Divine Providence.
The timing is so perfect.
Because this is exactly the feeling that Jews have as they exit the special month of Tishrei with all of its Chagim. Its like a radical season change from a sunny balmy month, to a cold winterly reality.
It also perfectly fits the theme of the Parsha this week which is about Noach and the flood.
One of the fascinating things about the flood was how Noach needed to be instructed to leave the ark.
Think about it. If you were cooped up in an ark with only your wife, sons and daughters-in-law and every species of animals on the face of earth, and then they announced that the flood was over, would you need to be instructed to emerge from the ark? I would think that after such an ordeal, the moment the earth was dry enough, you would be itching to leave and get outa there.
Noach, having gotten used to the environment of the cocoon of the ark didn’t want to leave. Inside the ark it was idyllic and peaceful. Even Messianic in the sense that all types of animals that usually devour each other were coexistent and cooperative with each other. Just like it says in the prophecy of Mashiach that ‘the wolf will live with the lamb’, this is what took place in the ark of Noach.
Who wants to leave that kind of warm, holy, camaraderie filled environment?
Its like going out from the warm summer months to the cold harsh winter.
Or like leaving the exalted, inspirational days of the Chagim to enter the stark mundanity of the challenges and tensions of life.
(This is something we Covid generation can relate to. Some people had trouble reengaging with society after being quarantined in their hotel room for two weeks upon entry to Thailand. There was something relaxing and redeeming about that isolation. Nothing was expected of you. None of the tensions of responsibilities, deadlines, schedules and putting up with the friction of society).
Yet, as spiritually uplifting as the atmosphere in the ark was, Noach was instructed to leave.
Because the intention of Hashem is not to keep the saintly Noach in the enclave environment of cloistered holiness of the ark. Hashem wanted Noach to create a refined world by engaging in it. To be married. To have children and grandchildren. To engage in planting and harvesting. To develop commerce and civic occupations. And against that backdrop, to cultivate the holy environment that Hashem will then call His home.
This is a message to us as well.
Just as Hashem instructed Noach to leave the ark, Hashem moves our seasons and calendar onwards and yes, the winter comes. And we need to learn how to weather the winter.
In the spiritual realm, the celebration-laden month of Tishrei gives way to the not-even-one-holiday-month of Marcheshvan.
SAD?
NO WAY.
I don’t know what the author of the winter book wrote. I know what the Torah tells us.
How do you enter the ‘regular’ year and stay JOYOUS? By never truly ending the holidays. By taking the holiday inspiration and spirit and bringing it with you as you ender the mundane days of the year.
The joy of Sukkot and Simchat Torah is meant to give us the tools to inject the rest of the year with joy.
On Sukkot we remember Hashem’s protective embrace. This embrace is always there. We enter the new year in Hashem’s protective hug. It requires thinking back once in a while to the eternal message of Hashems protection.
How can you be scared when embraced by the Almighty?
From whence to get Joy?
Simchat Torah instills within us the joy of being Hashems nation to whom He gave the Torah.
This joy doesn’t stop after Simchas Torah. If we have observed and inculcated the message of Simchas Torah properly, we have started studying Torah more consistently.
Our joy only grows as we engage in enhanced Torah study.
My friends, there is no reason and no excuse to be sad.
And more importantly there is no time to be SAD with moodiness from the season change.
During these turbulent times we need ‘all hands on deck’.
Our holy and heroic soldiers are literally putting their lives on the line as they valiantly protect us at the borders of Israel. The holy residents of Israel who continue to live life with resilience and optimism are awesome.
All of us wherever we may be spread throughout the world must do our bit as soldiers in ‘tzivot Hashem’ the ‘army of Hashem’. Each of us must do their best for the collective benefit, safety, and redemption of Am Yisrael.
Forward march to making this world the holy and G-dly place that it needs to become.
It starts with making ourselves more G-dly.
The way to do that is first of all by studying Torah.
This is a call to action.
Incorporate daily study of Torah into your schedule.
There is no excuse these days not to study. Online Torah lessons, subscriptions to daily emails of Torah, videos teaching Torah, the opportunities to learn Torah have never been greater.
Take a deep dive into Torah.
Try it. Daily. Please G-d it will provide you with joy, stability, meaning and purpose.
And most of all, you will be connecting intimately with G-d by having His intellect meshed with your brain in a consummate bond that is beyond description.
Shabbat Shalom
Chodesh Tov
Rabbi Yosef Kantor