The Shabbat of Vision

Shabbat Devarim 5767

This Shabbat is Shabbat Chazon, literally The Shabbat of Vision.

The famous Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev explained that on Shabbat Chazon Hashem shows each and every one of us a vision of the glorious Third Temple and says to us: Keep this image in front of your eyes - it is yours if you strive for it.

As we approach this very holy Shabbat, let us try to understand how this relates to each and everyone of us in a meaningful way.

In Jewish thought, and l'havdil, in psychiatry, two quite different approaches are used. One focuses on where the person has been, and the other on where the person can be.

By way of example: When a person is stuck in a muddy hole or quicksand, he has two options for extracting himself. One method is to search with his feet until he feels a ledge from which to climb out from. The second is to use his hands to grasp a tree or a rock to pull himself out with.

Of the two methods, the second, although initially requiring more energy, is clearly preferred. The first option involves struggling in dirt or sand. Furthermore, if he misses he may land in an even deeper quagmire than he began with. In contrast, the second option involves no struggle with dirt. It is focused outside the pit.

Through focusing on what is above, one is automatically freed from that which is below.

In a similar fashion, our lives involve many struggles on the personal, the communal, the national and the global levels.

We have a choice of struggling with our demons, trying to overcome and finally vanquish them. The problem with this approach is that it totally focuses on the very demons that are pulling us down. There is no guarantee that we will not misplace our footing and fall even deeper into the pit. And even if we win, we become bloodied and dirtied in the process.

The Chassidic approach is not to focus on where we are but on where we could be. Every one of us has enormous potential; the world has enormous potential. There is infinite good that is just waiting to be untapped. That we don't always achieve it, is largely due to our allowing ourselves to be deflected by the obstacles which are strewn in our path instead of remaining focused on where we are going.

This is the message of Shabbat Chazon - the Shabbat of Vision - for our personal, communal, national and global lives.

Don't focus on the evil that brought about the destruction of the Temple!

Focus instead on the good that will cause the Temple to be rebuilt!

As a famous Jew once said, "If we will it - it is not a dream!"

Herzl was right when it came to the establishment of the State. And Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev is right when it comes to our personal redemption and the redemption of the entire world, through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.

How quickly it happens depends only on us.

Rabbi Benzion Milecki OAM