Singing the Song of Our Lives

This week’s Torah portion is referred to as a song. However, reading through it, it doesn’t feel like it’s a melody we would want to sing. The portion starts off by discussing the blessings that will be bestowed upon the Jewish people for keeping the Torah, but a majority of it discusses the negative and seemingly harsh consequences that will befall the Jewish people for forgetting God and our Torah. What part of this is song-like?

Lesson:

A key to this question lies later in the Torah portion. “The Rock! Perfect is His work, for all His paths are justice; a God of faith without iniquity, righteous and fair is He” (32:4). Everything God does is perfect within perfection. There is not one detail that is out of place or not as it should be, even if we do not always see the perfection in this world. If one were to dissect out different chords and parts of a song or orchestra, not only may it not sound pleasing to the ear but could sound completely different than when played together with all the other pieces. For example, songs contain a combination of many chords. Just hearing one chord repeatedly is nothing more than just a sound. Only when played together with other chords – each at precisely the right duration, combination, and timing, does it add a dimension of depth and beauty, culminating in a song.

The human experience is such that our experiences are binary: they’re perceived as independent and discordant events in our lives and often times perceived as either good or bad. However, every single thing that we experience – even small details as seeing a beautiful bird fly by or hearing two people speaking nicely to each other while taking a walk – are all orchestrated by God out of love for us and is part of the harmonious and complicated scheme of the history of the universe. Nothing is arbitrary; nothing is random. Everything detail of our lives is orchestrated by our Father in Heaven Who loves us more than our hearts have the capacity to love. As such, every detail of our lives is an expression of God’s love for us – to shower us with compassion and to gently and lovingly help us grow to help us fulfill our highest, holiest potential.

Just like a great symphony is comprised of layers upon layers of different sounds, all fused together to create a masterpiece, so too are the details of our lives. This is both the details of our lives to help shape us into the people God knows that we can be as well as how our lives fit into the lives of others and the history of the universe. Our lives are not happening in a vacuum. We are shaping our reality and future as well as the future for the world. We see this idea exemplified through our forefathers and foremothers, whose actions set the stage for all Jewish people.

There is such a beautiful and poignant example of how two seemingly independent events are truly interconnected and show how God lovingly guides every detail of our lives to create a true symphony of events that set the stage for our future.

Parshat Vayeshev starts off describing the story of Yosef. Yosef’s father, Yaakov, asks him to check on his brothers who see him from a distance, plot to kill him and instead end up selling him as a slave in Egypt. The story is interjected to tell us about another seemingly independent and unrelated story – the story of Yehuda and Tamar. Tamar is Yehuda’s daughter-in-law but after two of her husbands (both Yehuda’s sons) pass away, she is promised but not given the third son as a husband. As such, she devises a plan to cohabitate with Yehuda (with him not knowing it is her) as she prophetically knows that her lineage with come from him. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to twin sons.

After the story of Yehuda – the Torah continues again with the story of Yosef. The fact that the story of Yosef is interrupted by the story of Yehuda tells us there is a connection. However, just looking at the stories themselves, they do not seem to be related. However, not only are these two stories related, they are so deeply connected and together set the stage for all Jewish experience and history.

The story of Yosef being sold as a slave in Egypt is the very beginning of the Jewish exile. Before that, all the Jews were in Israel. Yosef going down to Egypt set the stage for the exile for all Jewish people. The story of Yehuda and Tamar set the stage for our redemption. The union of Yehuda and Tamar resulted in a son from whom Moshiach, Messiah will come, please God soon.

God is showing us His love and compassion – even though we will be exiled – do not worry – the seed of Moshiach was planted – the key to our redemption – at the very same time – through two seemingly independent events! However, no two events are more connected! In the middle of Yosef setting the stage of a jungle of exile, hardship, and suffering, God is planting the seed of our salvation and redemption through Yehuda and Tamar.

This is the song! The knowledge and understanding that God is just and perfect. When we can bask in that experience and truth then we can truly sing and dance the song of our lives, please God until 120 years old!

Exercise: Take this moment and know that it was lovingly given to you by God for you to fulfill your unique mission in this world and it is intertwined with every moment of your life and the creation of the world. Thank God for it.