The Medicine from Sinai Our rabbis teach us that when all the Jewish Souls were gathered at Mt. Sinai, ready to receive the Torah, it was truly a cosmic event. The soul of every Jew who ever was or would be born . . . was there, either in body or in spirit. Present, past, and future were fused together in one magnificent timeless moment. And in that moment, God foresaw the entire history of the Jewish people. There would be wonderful times of joy and beauty, with magnificent processions in Jerusalem, and family meals around the Shabbat table. Throughout the centuries, Jews would sharpen their minds and connect to the spirit of the Jewish people by learning Torah far into the night, seeking out the hidden meanings within the sacred texts. They would dance in ecstasy as they carried the scrolls around the synagogue on Simchat Torah, and sing with pride and strength as they kindled the Chanukah candles. Oh, there would be so many wonderful things to celebrate – births and weddings, songs and poems – the very joy of life itself! But . . . there would also be terrible times of suffering and exile, when the collective soul of the Jewish people would be crushed by sadness. Slavery, the crusades, the inquisition, pogroms, the holocaust . . . So much persecution and so much sorrow! Yes, God could have made a universe where terrible things never happen. But there would have been no free will. The price of granting freedom to others is that they sometimes choose to use it for harm. But God so valued the wonderful gift of free will, that God decided to put up with a world that was not in perfect harmony. Still, God was deeply saddened by the things that would happen to God’s people in the future. God could see that there would be times when the suffering would be so horrible, and the persecutions so brutal, that the joy within Judaism would be crushed under the weight of sadness. This sadness would become bitterness, and a dark heaviness would enter the Jewish community. At such times, the Jews would forget the joy of Sinai and would see their Jewishness as nothing but a burden, to be cast off at the first opportunity. But where there is illness, there must also be a cure. So God designed a medicine right there at Sinai. What did God do? God called aside some of the Jewish souls and said, “I see in the future that there will come times when the Jewish people will be filled with deep pain. From the very day that they are born, they will be so severely persecuted by the surrounding nations, that their souls will become weighted down with depression. This depression will prevent them from soaring into the realms of joy for many generations.” The souls whom God had called aside were deeply saddened to hear this prediction. “What can we do?” they cried out in despair. “Today, I have already planned the medicine.” God replied. “But I need some brave volunteers. Would some of you be willing to go into exile – to remain Jewish souls, but be born among the gentiles? You will grow up in safety and not be persecuted as Jews, but you will also feel out of place among the nations, and will long to return to your own people. Your mission will be to carry the joy of Sinai in your hearts, protecting it from bitterness. Whenever the suffering becomes too great for My people to bear, some of will convert to Judaism and bring back the happiness that you feel here today. You will be like a time-release medicine, lying dormant in the world until you are needed.” Upon hearing what their mission would be, the souls whom God had called aside were silent for a very long time. This was a very difficult thing that God was asking them to do. To spend so many incarnations among the very nations that would oppress the Jewish people? To live so many lives alone and alienated? Yet in the end, the souls agreed to it. God blessed them all and said, “You shall be known as the Shomrei Simcha – the Keepers of the Joy.” And so it happened, down through the centuries, that in every generation a few of these Keepers have converted to Judaism. Sometimes the souls who were born as Jews were so filled with pain that they could not understand the bubbling enthusiasm of the Keepers, and tended to resent them. But gradually, their joy would spread among the people and the balance would be restored. In past centuries, the Keepers of the Joy only came in twos or threes, because although there were persecutions, there was also great faith among the Jews. However, in the twentieth century, there came along the Nazis and their leader, Adolf Hitler. The suffering under Hitler was so severe, so utterly, unspeakably horrible, that the light of the Jewish people was almost extinguished. The Jews who survived the Holocaust felt utterly abandoned by God and humanity, and many were unable to feel any joy for decades afterwards. And so it happened that in this generation, at the end of the 20th century, more time-release Jewish souls are returning to Judaism than every before. This is why there are such large numbers of converts in modern times, and why they are so filled with enthusiasm. They are not really “Jews-by-Choice” as they sometimes call themselves, but souls who are already Jewish, completing their mission from the days of Sinai. They are the Keepers of the Joy.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 05:03:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015