Seek and Ye Might Find - Vaetchanan, Shabbat Nachamu 2011

Parshat Vaetchanan-
Shabbat Nachamu:  Seek and Ye Might Find

Rabbi Neil A. Tow©2011

People in Arab nations, in Egypt in Syria are searching for something.

Japanese who live in the area of the Fukushima plant are also searching.

Those suffering from deprivation in the Horn of Africa are looking.

We think, wonder, watch and search ourselves.

Is it always clear what we are searching for?  Can we always spell out what we lack, what we want, what we need, what can be done?  Is it ever possible to be realistic in our expectations and to be hopeful at the same time?

The Torah this week teaches us a lesson about searching.

“You will seek Ado—nai, Your God, from there and you will find, if indeed you reach out/ki tidreshenu with all your heart and all your soul.”(Deut. 4:29)

“From there” from wherever we are, in time, in space, physically, emotionally, wherever we may be.

From that place we look around us and we look to the future. 

The words of the parsha tell us we will find God from any place.  But what does it mean to find something that we cannot see our touch? 

Finding God might be a sense that we feel in rhythm with creation, one with our spirits and ourselves.  It might mean that we feel part of a community, a history.

But finding God is by no means an exact search with a programmed destination or result.

And we are searching at a time when we no longer have the Temple, the Temple that was destroyed 4 days ago in the Jewish calendar.  Seforno shares that the selection from our parsha reminds us that we will find God even though the Temple no longer stands, even though its holy vessels are long gone. 

Today on Shabbat Nachamu, Shabbat of comfort after mourning the destruction, ki tidreshenu/if we reach out, if we seek, we still may find.

But it is a comfort that comes at a price, as we find in the case of all those searchings, yearnings, and strivings that we feel.  The price is the faith that we must discover, the motor that will power us through that search and keep us on the path when events threaten to steer us off the path.

The search for help in this world, the search for hope and meaning, for security, for nourishment is neither definite nor assured even at a time when we what we can do seems to only be limited by what we can dream.

And so let us take the leap of faith that our selection from the parsha asks of us.  Let us dream together.  Let us dream that if we put our full heart and soul into anything that we may, we just might, contribute to this world in a way that will bring more light where there is darkness. 

And if we fail, if it comes to that, God will still be with us, for God accompanies us on every journey and is especially present when our whole heart and soul are engaged.

For each of us, today, tomorrow, what will our search be?  Whose journey will we be able to make easier and lighter?