When Standing On A Mountain
Parshat D’varim
Rabbi Beryl Padorr

In recent days, we have seen many disappointments, situations where people could see their dreams almost come to fruition, and then were not realized:  The Boston Celtics almost becoming the National Basketball champions; some of the top seated tennis players at Wimbledon were out early; the U S Soccer team, after coming up with last minute winning goals, finally out of the World Cup; and Abby Sunderland from Thousand Oaks, California who started off with the intentions of becoming the youngest to sail solo around the world, but who did not make it because her mast broke in a storm. This Shabbat we begin the last book of the Torah with Moses on one side of the Jordan, and Israel, the Promised Land, on the other side.  He has been God’s advocate, and also an advocate for the people, guiding and leading them, he can see the land, but the Jordan becomes symbolic of the insurmountable limits we all face between expectations in life and our achievements.
 
Moving forward is not always easy, and we have two polarizing themes arriving from where B’nai Israel is on their journey, and where Moses is in his life. Both are on top of the mountain.  God told the Israelites that they had stayed long enough at Horeb, on the top of the mountain.  They were comfortable, and God warned them that they must not become complacent; they must cross over and take the land promised to them. Like those Israelites on Mt. Horeb, too often in our lives, we become comfortable with the “here we are” mentality and we and stop actively seeking growth and change so that we will have  a new goal or purpose in front of us. And there was Moses in our Parsha, wishing to enter the land, seeing it just on the other side of the Jordan, but not being able to cross over. 
 
When Moses appeals to God to let him cross over into the Land of Israel, God’s response is rav lach, you have so much, or, much is yours, or perhaps, meaning enough for you – you have so much already.  All too often, people only look at what they did not achieve, what they do not have.  When the events or their lives do not manifest themselves as we had hoped or worked for, we have a tendency to feel we achieved nothing.  Perhaps the direction or focus of our dreams needs to change, or perhaps our dreams can stay the same, but our method needs to change.  And most importantly, we need to focus and be grateful for what we do have.
 
In a time when most people have less than they had, and have less than they expected to have, we need to change our focus from what we don’t have to what we do have, what we want, and what we can yet attempt to achieve in our life times.  Be grateful for what is around you. Try saying 100 blessings a day, starting with the 10 blessings of the morning service, and really think about their significance, that everything we have, our food and clothes, everything, truly comes from God who has put everything we need for our survival here on earth for us.  Sometimes we forget to be grateful for the precious gift of each new day; the ability to get up and move around – or the technology and medical advances that make it possible for us to move when that does not happen naturally; The gift of those around us, family, friends, care takers, community, who ever that might be.  Let us move forward with our lives from what ever mountain we may presently be standing on toward our next dream and promised land. 

Rabbi Beryl Padorr
Temple B’nai Hayim
Sherman Oaks, California
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The Jewish Federations of North America Rabbinic Cabinet

Cabinet Chair: Rabbi Steven E. Foster
Vice Chair: Rabbi Stuart G. Weinblatt

Vice Chair: Rabbi Fred Klein
Vice Chair: Rabbi Larry Kotok 
President: Rabbi Jonathan Schnitzer
Honorary Chair: Rabbi Matthew H. Simon

Director of the Rabbinic Cabinet: Rabbi Gerald Weider