|
|
Home
and Family
Survivors
by Rosally Saltsman
I believe it is correct to say that the cemeteries are full
of people who have, for the most part, led full lives and
have overcome the tragedies in them. Most people die in
their 70s and 80s and have died with something to show for
their lives. We have libraries full of inspiring stories of
people who have overcome great obstacles and hardships, who
have led, perhaps, difficult lives but have met all the
challenges set upon their path with courage and strength.
I am not denying that there has been great pain and loss and
misfortune that have claimed and inflicted people's lives
but greater are the numbers of those who have faced and
overcome the odds, the dire doctors' prognosis, the
bankruptcy, the divorce, the ravages of war, and have
triumphed, lived to tell about it and died of old age. When
we say "How will we survive?" we can say it in despair, as a
rhetorical question or as a practical consideration.
Okay, tragedy has struck, now how do we carry on and
survive? Isn't that our national theme? When the odds are
impossibly against us, when everyone plots to destroy us,
when there is no hope, we survive anyway with Hashem's help.
Many times both as individuals and as a nation, we have
stood on the edge of the abyss and then stepped back. All of
us have untapped reservoirs of strength.
Reservoirs are water, the Torah is compared to water. Water
is strong, water is heavy, water is powerful and so is faith
and trust. So are we.
We are all given numerous tests in our lives. They seem
insurmountable but we surmount them anyway. The news isn't
that this one dies tragically or that one faces misfortune.
The real news is that this one encountered death and
overcame it, that one faced struggle and won. That's the
real news but since it's so pervasive, it isn't fit to
print. (Editor's Note: Except in Yated.)
This country is full of survivors, people who have survived
persecution, near death, poverty, starvation, heartache,
loss. And we're all gathered together as one people, the
nation who survives. When we look at ourselves as capable of
overcoming anything, then we can, be it in our own inner
struggles, in our personal lives, in our public lives and as
a people.
Am Yisroel Chai!
|
