Home Shalom promotes healthy relationships and facilitates the creation of judgement free, safe spaces in the Jewish community. Home Shalom is a program of The Advot Project.
“Human beings are the only creatures of circumstances that are also creators of circumstances.” – Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan
The story is told of a king who was looking for a reason to expel the Jews from his country. So, he called a prominent rabbi to his palace and said to him, “If you answer my riddle correctly, I will permit your people to remain in my realm, but if you are wrong, all of you will be expelled immediately. Now, I have a bird which I am holding behind my back. Your challenge is to tell me whether the bird is dead or alive.” The rabbi pondered his dilemma and realized that the king surely had a live bird behind his back but if he said the bird was alive the king would simply choke the bird with his hand and reveal a dead bird. But if the rabbi said the bird was dead, the king would simply bring forth the bird alive as it was. So, the rabbi thought deeply about this challenge and finally turned to the king and said, “Your majesty, whether the bird is dead or alive is in your own hands.”
So too it is ultimately with all of us. Much of life seems hidden from our view, the good or the bad waiting just around the next corner as if totally out of our control. Yet, as Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan so wisely reminded us, “Human beings are the only creatures of circumstances that are also creators of circumstances.” It is always the case that each of us holds our own destiny in our hands, according to the choices we make every day. Who we spend our time with, the words we choose to speak, the actions we choose to take, the books we read, the classes or lectures or podcasts we listen to, the friends we choose, all create the circumstances of our lives and have led us to the life we are living today. We can choose the path that allows us to reflect the best in our nature, the higher angels of our spirit, the loving hearts we each possess, that which makes us the unique human beings that we are and in doing so help each other create the world of the future that we envision.
Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben Home Shalom
Naomi Ackerman The Advot Project
