Dear all,
We’ve been teaching the kids to play chess. One lesson I remember learning long ago is that you don’t play the move in front of you — you play the position it creates. Good players think two or three moves ahead. They pay attention, read intention, and understand that every choice reshapes the board.
Life asks something similar of us. We are called to live fully in the present — and yet we are also responsible for the future our present is quietly building.
So the essential question becomes:
What kind of tomorrow is this choice creating?
Sometimes what feels safe now plants the seeds of vulnerability later. And sometimes what feels difficult or costly today becomes the foundation of strength, integrity, and blessing.
The Talmud teaches: “On the path a person wishes to walk, they are led” (Yoma 38b).
The future is not accidental. It grows in the direction of our decisions.
Every moment, then, is more than a moment in time.
It is a trajectory.
It is a becoming.
And so we try to live as thoughtful players on the board of life — aware, intentional, and courageous enough to choose not only what serves us now, but what shapes who we will be.
With love and Shalom,
Rabbi Zachary R. Shapiro
PS – The kids have successfully gotten me in checkmate multiple times!
