KoREH News

Perseverance Is Key

I love stories. The best stories have way to keep delivering a timely message in each and every generation. Here is one of my favorites from the great storyteller, Aesop:

A crow is flying around on a hot summer day looking for water. Finally, after hours of searching, he comes across a pitcher of water, but when he tries to stick his beak in he can't reach the water. He tries and tries, slowly getting more dehydrated. Just as the crow feels he cannot go on anymore, and is about to give up and accept his fate, he has an idea: he looks around him and finds dozens of small pebbles. One by one, the crow drops the pebbles into the pitcher until the water level rises to the point where he can take a
long, cold sip.

One of the greatest lessons we can learn is perseverance. We try to teach it to our students in every lesson, with every new learning challenge. No matter who we are, where we live, or what we do in our daily lives, obstacles will appear. The real question is not how can we avoid all of life’s difficulties, but rather what do we do when the challenges
inevitably appear?

Sefer Bereshit (The Book of Genesis) is nothing if not a chronicle of hardships endured and overcome. Adam and Eve lose one of two sons and are thrown out of the Garden of Eden. Yet, they continue on, build a life, expand their family and begin to build a new reality for themselves. Abraham is tested, the Talmud says, with ten different trials, and somehow is able to come back again and again, to talk to and even argue with, God. Throughout our history, from the time of Torah until today, we have somehow been able to persevere even in the face of unthinkable catastrophes both personal and national.

The year 5779 has just begun; 2018 is slowly coming to a close. I hope that whatever life holds in store for you, and for us all, we are able to be creative, insightful, compassionate, and that we never fail to find new ways in which to persevere.