Event of the Year: All Events
Date: Rosh Chodesh Tishrei 5773 - Rosh Chodesh Tishrei 5774
""What is this year's event?" I was asked - and I had a hard time answering. Like everyone else, I went through personal/family/public events this year that had a great impact on me.
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So why ask what the "event of the year" is? There are many events, each one has left its mark, each one has moved/built/hidden/promoted/delayed/influenced.
Are we supposed to choose an "event" that is the main one? Of course not.
We are indeed supposed to, as part of an annual self-examination, examine where we have progressed, whether we are now smarter, better, and more righteous people.
That's what matters in the end, was there justification for an entire year of life, or did we just wallow in the mud, build sand buildings, and now if we remember the day of death, we will discover that we have made no progress at all.
The terrible snow? The quarter-million rally? The cliff of failure?
Which of them is considered a more important event?
It seems to me that none of them promoted anyone to be better.
These were opportunities to do good, to repay kindness in the snow, to repay kindness to the people of Israel, whether as soldiers who sacrificed their lives, or as citizens who did good to soldiers or simply as brothers.
But there was nothing in them that changed the person.
The one who repaid kindness is the one who was also present yesterday, and the one who was not, was immersed in himself even at the height of the events and the unity that was revealed in the nation.
The importance of each event is therefore measured by its impact on the person, in taking them from one stage and elevating them to the next.
And so, for the most part, public events have almost no real significance for the individual. Neither the mayoral elections, nor Sharon's death. Neither the snow nor the kidnapping, they do not advance the individual. If it were not for the media, we would not hear about it and most of our lives would not have changed as a result.
So what did affect us?
""At the hour of man's death, there is no companion for him, neither silver nor gold nor fine stones nor pearls, but only Torah and good deeds in the heart.".
We must take every act we have done and think about whether or not the story will be told in our obituaries?
Will they say we built a giant snowman? Will they say we smiled at our friends? Will they say we participated in rallies and demonstrations? Will they say we were a supportive shoulder in times of failure?
Or let's ask the right question, not "What will they tell?", but "What will we tell?""
What is our life story?
To me, the most important event of 2014 were the moments when we faced off between the better and the less good and chose the better.
The moments that will make us face the cycle with a sweet feeling in our hearts.
May we have another happy and sweet year, in our hearts.
