Is the world coming to an end?
“The world is changing and about to come to an end.”
That was the view in every age of history. With a difference.
Regardless of how we spoke of doom in the past, now it might really be happening.
Think of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev.
Every night he said to himself, “Whatever I have done today will not be allowed again!”
Then he rebuked himself: “But you said that yesterday too!”
“True,” he replied to himself, “But today I really mean it!”
Last year before Rosh HaShanah we probably uttered a dire foreboding about the future… but this year we really mean it.
What has happened this year?
All of a sudden everybody has come under threat, no ifs, no buts, no exceptions. No corners to hide in, no certainty that we will come through and survive.
We fear going out into the street, we fear human company, we fear taking the bus, we fear sitting and singing in shule.
What a shock when an innocent phone call to ask how a friend is doing gets the reply, “Didn’t you know?” When we were out of touch something happened in the friend’s family, and it could happen in anyone’s.
I have no answers except faith in God.
Psalm 90 says, “Teach us to count our days.”
God, teach us to count our days, our loved ones, our friends, our blessings, You.
We shall not walk this way again: teach us to value the things on the way, the little things by the sidewalk, the sun in the sky and the grass on the earth, the flowers, the leaves, the fruits.
We are uncertain about tomorrow, but we still have today.
Thank you, God; take our hands in Yours, and be with us wherever we go.
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