Lucy has all sorts of good
things going on in her life, a loving husband and children, a comfortable
apartment, a job she enjoys doing, but she focuses her attention on her
financial accounts. She has enough to have a nice retirement already, just
maybe not lounging around a pool in Hawaii for months on end each year or for
annual exotic cruises with her whole family. Lucy’s not poor, but not rich
either. What she is most is discontented.
She often prays that she will
win a lottery and her problems will be solved. One night, she dreamed, as she
had so often, of checking off all of the Powerball numbers. An angel appeared
in her dreams. The angel said to her, “Lucy, I’ve come to grant your wish. You
will win a lottery. All you have to do is help a person, to whom I will
introduce you, figure out how to live without all that you have in your life.
You will know of whom I speak when you see them.”
The next day, Lucie was
excited. Who would this person be? Where would she meet him or her? When? Maybe
at the coffee shop? She went first thing in the morning, ordered her favorite
latte, and sat by the front window, looking out at the sidewalk of the downtown
street as swarms of people walked by.
There were people walking
dogs, some with two or three. There were people pushing strollers. Some people dressed
smartly in expensive tailored suits or fur coats. Others wore uniforms. She
wondered to or from what jobs they headed. Some people smiled. Many didn’t.
More than a few talked on their phones or texted as they walked and almost ran
right in to others doing the same. It was cold outside. You could see
everyone’s breath.
Lucy came to enjoy watching
the people outside, staring out the window, forgetting all about the people
inside.
A woman sat down at the table
next to Lucy. She wore several layers, two scarves and a woolen hat. She held a
mug of coffee in both of her hands, warming them by its heat. She coughed. It
was not the excuse me sort of cough, not a little cough to get your attention.
It wasn’t a normal cough either. It was a deep raspy, this person is really
sick, sort of cough, the kind of cough that gets people concerned about their
own health and gets them to move away. A man on the other side did just that a
few moments later.
Lucy noticed briefly and turned
back to looking at the people walking down the street. The woman coughed again,
then again and again in succession. That got Lucy’s attention.
“Are you alright?” Lucy
asked. “Do you need some water?”
“No, thanks.” She paused,
“need to go to the doctor I think.”
She coughed again, this time
so loudly that everyone turned to stare.
“Do you have a doctor?” Lucy
asked.
“No. Can’t afford a doctor.
Can’t afford much, have to pay for food and a place for me and the kids to
live. Nice man bought this coffee for me. Saw me sitting outside. I guess I was
shivering.”
Lucy didn’t take long to
realize that perhaps this woman was the one about whom the angel was speaking.
“Okay,” she thought to herself, “I’m supposed to figure out how to help her
live without all that I have.
“Have you tried going to a
clinic or the ER to have them check out that cough? Maybe there is a free
clinic, I could help you find one.”
The two talked for a while
longer. The woman finished her coffee. Lucy gave her money to pay for a bus ride
to the hospital. The woman wouldn’t accept anything more. Then she left.
That night, the same angel
appeared to Lucy in a new dream.
“Did you see her?”
“That woman today, the one
with the cough? I helped her go to the hospital.”
“No, Lucy. That was nice of
you, but she’s not the one.”
In the days that followed,
Lucy met several other people whom she was sure were “the one:”
· There was the older man whom she helped with his
groceries and
· The construction worker with two broken wrists in
casts who needed help fixing his coffee.
· There was the homeless woman for whom she purchased a
hot chocolate and talked about her life’s story.
· There was the mother battling a debilitating illness
who was tearing up while on the phone as she spoke to her sister about her
children’s future.
· There were the teenage boys talking about how people
treated them differently because of the color of their skin.
· Then there was the woman who was worried about losing her
job and not being able to support her children and
· The wealthy man who worried about losing his wife and
children because he was constantly working.
Each night, she dreamed. Each
night, the angel told her, “No, not the one.”
From each person, Lucy learned.
She became better at talking with people and gained a better understanding what
makes life meaningful. Lucy stopped praying to win the lottery.
One day, as Lucy looked out
the window at the people passing by, she saw her face reflected in the window as
she had every time. But this time, she stopped and looked at herself. She
looked a bit more confident than she had, kind and welcoming.
Lucy thought about her own
life. How lucky she was to have a loving family. How lucky she was to have
health, to have worked for years at something she enjoyed, to have a
comfortable place to live, to be able to come and have a warm coffee and watch
people walking by. How lucky she was that she could help others.
Lucy smiled at herself in the
window. It was then that she knew for sure she had seen “the one.” And at that
moment, she also realized that she had already won the lottery.
Last night, as we recited the
words of the Kol Nidrei prayer, we remembered our ancestors who were forced to
say, “Yes,” when they meant, “No.” That is a simple statement, but implies so
much more. How thankful are we not to live in such a time and place wherein we
are threatened because we are Jews? How thankful are we that we have the
opportunity to follow the path of our choosing, to not repeat the words of
Moses, “Let my people go,” with a painful longing in our hearts.
This morning, we read in the
Torah that the ability to follow the proper path is within our ability, not
over the sea, but within us, like looking at our own reflection to find the
solution to our problems. May we each turn ourselves in the best direction for
us.
Today is a day for Heshbon
Nefesh, an accounting of our souls. Most days, we look around us. We take note
of others. We think of things beyond us. We look through windows at others,
sometimes kindly, sometimes critically.
On Yom Kippur, we take the
time to look at our own reflection, to appreciate what we have in our lives, to
realize what we lack, and to look along the path that we have taken and the
path that lies before us. Are we heading in the right direction? If not, where
must we turn? How do we turn?
Again, it is not across the
sea. Those answers are within each of us. We can turn. We can begin the process
of T’shuvah. We can renew ourselves.
This day, we reflect and
consider.
This day, we remember.
This day, we seek to
understand the pain of others.
This day, we seek to
understand our own pain.
This day, we are mindful of
the blessings that we have in our lives instead of simply focusing on what we
lack.
This day, we seek forgiveness
for actions we should not have taken and for our inaction when we should have
acted.
This day, we promise to do
better.
This day, we reflect and
consider the many times before that we have promised to do better.
This day, we renew our
promise.
The Jewish Tradition tells us
that when we look at our image, we’re seeing something else. Looking at our
reflection, we’re seeing an image of God looking back at us. We see our parents
and grandparents too, every one of our ancestors in some way. And are we that
different from others, others whose image, like our own, is also the divine
image?
This High Holiday period:
· I spoke about priorities we would like to see in our
lives, in our homes, and in our communities.
· I spoke about how our tradition sees us as both being
present now and present in the distant past. We were there and then, just as we
are here and now facing challenges, going on journeys. Hineini, here I am.
Hineinu, here we are.
· I spoke about how we are all created in the image of
God, how we are all like each other, how we can potentially see our reflection
in others who make us very uncomfortable, and how all of us have the capacity
to perform T’shuvah, to turn and move in a better direction. And today,
· I spoke of seeing our own reflection, of Heshbon
Nefesh, an accounting of our souls, of looking at ourselves and our lives, of
realizing our blessings.
May we be mindful of our true
priorities in life,
May we face our challenges
with dignity and courage,
When we look upon others,
even those who are difficult and problematic,
May we remember that we are
tainted with some of the same faults for we are all B’tselem Elohim, created in
the image of God. And
Whenever we look at the world
around us,
May we not forget to consider
the reflection that we see in the window, mindful of who we are and thankful
for the blessings we have in our own lives.
G’mar Chatimah Tovah.
May you be sealed in the Book
of Life for a good, sweet, and happy New Year.
