The Power to See

.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Thank you for joining me. I'mRabbi David Lyon from Congregation Both Israel in
Houston. Over the last few weeks, I've been in a variety of conversations
with people, and one of theissues that they lament more than others,
and there are many to be concernedabout today, is the quality of the
workforce. Who are we hiring,who's coming to work? Are they staying?

(00:24):
Are they working hard? Are theyeven showing up or just working from
home? What I found for myselfin listening and from personal experience too,
and hiring and mentoring others, isthat there is a sense of rushing among
young people, wanting all that theycan get right away, having all the

(00:45):
accouchements, all the parts of adulthood, without waiting for the time to earn
them or to acquire them when they'rereally needed. How many times has a
young person been hired and wanting toknow what the works and benefits, the
days off, the times away fromthe office, looking for the car that
house the dog, all the symbolsof it althood without necessarily earning them in

(01:10):
time. That's not to say there'sanything wrong, but the way they're going
about it, it's their generation.It's their choice, but there are many
models and examples from the past,in books, in sacred texts, in
other ways that we learn about life, to describe our effort or our sweat
equity that we pour into our workas a means of earning what we desire,

(01:33):
so that it doesn't all have tocome by the age of thirty.
Even if it doesn't come by theage of forty, there are other pursuits
that we are trying to achieve,including rearing children in good schools, to
find good work, to find thebest of their abilities through sports and music
and art and other activities that they'rejust coming to learn about. And sometimes

(01:59):
all that we on to acquire comeslater, maybe even after children have gone
to see it all. To haveit all is not necessarily the goal that
suggests that one is a success ora winner, because to see it all
or to know it all can alsobe terribly overwhelming. In the Talmult,

(02:20):
a long time ago, the rabbiswrestled with these issues too How much is
too much? How do we appreciatethe world that we're living, and how
do we accommodate a world that wedon't fully understand and can see as God
sees. These are the questions therabbis of old wanted to ask and struggle
to answer. In the talmut inattract I called Brachote, they talked,

(02:46):
if the eye only had the powerto see, no one could survive because
of the evil spirits. What theymean by this is that if we were
given the privilege to open our eyesand see it all, we would be
overwhelmed by the challenges, sometimes thecruelty, the evil in the world around
us. They didn't talk about attemptor or a satan individual, but rather

(03:12):
the reality that the world that welive in is broken, it is complicated,
and to see everything as it is, naked as it is, might
be overwhelming to us. So whatwe're born with is an instinct and teachings
that guide us to see the worldas it is, but also as it

(03:32):
ought to be, and then torely on sacred teachings, commandments, and
its vote, those good deeds thatwe are given to apply ourselves, our
skills, our heart and mind tothe world in front of us, to
be sure that what we see isnot overwhelming or devastating, but rather an
opportunity to make a positive difference.When we get up in the morning to

(03:57):
see our schedule and our to dolist not as something that we can't accomplish,
but something that we might apply ourselvesto and invite others to join us
in finishing. In the community too, and in the workplaces where we are
unless we work in solo positions.More often we sit around the table or
around the zoom room with others whohelp us to accomplish it. And though

(04:19):
challenges can be great, competition canbe fierce. It is the kind of
things that we see not with aneye on what we a is overwhelming and
we can't overcome, but an eyeon what we can do. What are
our strengths, what are the skillswe need to invite in in order to
accomplish the work ahead of us?And of course the world too is filled

(04:43):
with so many areas of brokenness,but it isn't ours to see all of
it, nor should we want tosee everything. What is in front of
us as our responsibility and our obligationto work towards to finish and to create
something better than what we found.Furthermore, Rabbiosi says in attract I call

(05:04):
hagiga woe to God's creatures who seeand do not know what they see.
Be careful what you wish for.I suppose if we really had the omnisction
debility to see and to know everythingin the world, we might not be
too happy that we got our wish, because everything going on is not our

(05:28):
responsibility, and everything going on isin something that we can necessarily understand.
For those of us who worship andpray, we're grateful that God, in
all the ways that we imagine Godis, as we call God, ruler
of the universe, who animates andsets into motion all that is happening.
But by virtue of our sacred text, we discover that what we've been given,

(05:53):
that which animates us, is partof our ability to respond to those
expectations in those commandments. It's partof what I've called our moral formation.
If we apply ourselves, if weunderstand the lessons correctly and well in our
contemporary times, then we can buildin a world today, not a world

(06:14):
of the past, but a worldof our future. And there we see
what we're entitled to see. Therewe see what we're able to see.
We're not omniscient, we're not clairvoyant, and none of us are prophets.
Even the prophets of old, ifyou want to compare them to those who
claim to be prophets today. TheHebrew prophets of old did not forecast the

(06:39):
future by seeing through a crystal ballor by some means or magical measures.
Rather, they were God's mouthpieces andby virtue of what they saw in front
of them. They said, ineffect, if the people continue to behave
in this manner, then there's noother way of concluding what will be the

(07:00):
outcome. It will either be Xor y, it will be good or
evil. And the prophet's usually arrivedwhen the people were on the edge and
needed to be guided back to somethingmore sacred. And so a prophet is
not one who sees the whole world, and neither is a modern person who
calls himself or herself a prophet.Beware of such people, but rather all

(07:24):
of us human as we are areable to see actions and decisions and behaviors,
and we can decide from those whatwill the future will be. We
can't always judge someone's intentions, butwe can certainly, and with great permission,

(07:46):
judge a person's actions and their words, and the consequences of those actions
and words should give us all theproof we need to know whether we need
to follow that person or not.And so when the Rabbi says, woe
to God's creatures who see and donot know what they see, it is
also the problem that sometimes we wantto see something that isn't there, and

(08:09):
if we blind ourselves and convince ourselvesotherwise, then we're leading ourselves on our
road that doesn't exist and will leadus into some trouble. But what's worse
is that we usually don't walk thoseroads alone. Sometimes we bring our children,
or our families, or our menteesor our coworkers. We really have

(08:30):
an enormous responsibility not just to getit right, but to be sure that
we're seeing what we should see,and maybe even asking others to help us
focus on what's in front of usto be sure that we understand it correctly.
In this age of right and left, of conservative and liberal and polarization,

(08:50):
we actually owe it ourselves to lookat both sides to be sure that
we can discover what is the truth, what is verifiable, and maybe,
sometimes, as history has proven,it isn't found on the far right or
the far left, but rather inthe reasonable middle or more people can compromise
and come to some meaningful conclusion thatguides us in the right direction and helps

(09:15):
us to see what is more appropriatelypresent for us, rather than trying to
see something that doesn't exist at all. In addition, our rabbis taught and
attract a call be sachhim. Seventhings are hidden from human beings. First,
the day of death. We knowthat to be true. Second,

(09:37):
the day of comfort. We reallydon't know when we'll ultimately be at ease,
and it isn't necessarily when we havemore money or more things. Sometimes
it's a state of mind. Sometimesit's a measure of our presence and ability
to see that what we have isenough, if that's the way we measure
it. Another thing that is hiddenfrom us is the extent of judgment.

(10:03):
We can't always know what we're ableto understand, or even the decisions or
conclusions that we can reach, butthe extent of judgment is something sometimes beyond
us and sometimes something we have toaccept. When there is a death of
a young person that seems terribly unfairand unjust, we can't always know the
extent of that kind of judgment,but sometimes faith helps us to wrap our

(10:28):
heads around it and to find comfortin what can be present for us,
another thing that's hidden from us.One human being does not know what is
in another's heart. I said itearlier. It's true. We can sometimes
judge a person's deeds or words,but not what's in their heart or in
their intentions. Nor does one knowfrom what one will earn a living.

(10:50):
We have dreams about what we'll doto earn a living. When we ask
our children when they're young, whatdo you want to be when you grow
up. I want to be anastronaut. I want to be a football
player. I want to be adoctor. Ultimately, we don't know from
what we'll make a living, butit doesn't excuse us from finding a way
to make a living. Another thingthat's hidden from human beings. When the

(11:15):
Kingdom of David will return, that'sa nod to the Messianic time or the
Messianic age. We don't know,and much has been written in the Talmud
about that day when it arrives,that we should continue to go about our
work planting for the future, becausewhen the Messiah comes, the Messiah will
be able to wait if it's reallythe Messiah, for us to continue planning

(11:37):
for a future that we are stillresponsible for building. We will also be
not know when the evil kingdom willend. And so even as the Rabbis
in ancient times dealt with the dualityof good and evil, a kingdom of
good a kingdom of evil, theyjust didn't know when one or the other
would end, and so it didn'tconde fund them. They accepted the fact

(12:01):
that it was hidden from them,and then they apply themselves, as we
should too, to the work infront of us. Prayer has its place,
but it doesn't replace the deeds thatprayer should motivate and inspire us to
do to accomplish the things in frontof us. So ultimately, what we

(12:22):
see the vision in front of usis not something that should overwhelm or confound
us if we manage our expectations andwhat we know and believe about the human
potential to see what we can see, and work towards understanding in the future
what might be visible to us later. And so, coming back to the
idea of young people clamoring for allthat they want so quickly, the truth

(12:48):
is that young people today, accordingto an actuarial table, might live to
be a hundred and good health andvibrantly, So why rush? Enjoy life,
find the work life balance, applyyourself, work hard, earn the
accolades that comes with good work,and build on a foundation that ultimately grants
somebody the comfort, the peace ofmind, and the well being that comes

(13:11):
with what we call a life welllived. I'm Rabbi David Lyon from Congregation
Beth Israel and Houston. To listenagain or share this message, please find
it at my podcast called Heart toHeart with Rabbi David Lyon at Sunday nine
dot com and the iHeartMedia app.As the week begins, summer comes and

(13:35):
schools begin to close in some placesaround the country, our children are looking
for meaningful summers. Let's help themfind meaningful time at summer camp, building
on their skills and abilities, withoutrushing them to grow up faster than they
need to, but always helping themto learn from home and beyond all that
is good in them. Help themsee the good in others. Help them

(13:58):
see that all that they want toaccomplish is waiting for them in the future
without any need to rush. Andif they need help and support, a
sign of weakness is not helping lookingfor help from others. It's actually a
sign of strength to say, canI get help from you? Teach me,
show me how. Then all thecomfort, peace of mind, wealth,

(14:22):
whatever makes you happy will ultimately comebecause it's something that you poured yourself
into an earned in a proper way. All that's meant to come will come.
And the life can be hard,and life can be evil, ultimately
we learn how to overcome or getaround those matters with satisfaction and gratitude for

(14:43):
what is still ours and all thatwe can continue to do and to be.
Thank you for joining me this week. I look forward to being with
you again next time.