Making sense of the sedra: Acharei Mot
Tackling challenges helps us achieve greatness
At this year’s London Marathon, a partially-sighted mother and daughter broke their own world record for running a marathon. Lucette Crowhurst and her daughter Katie, from Maidenhead, Berkshire, had a combined time of eight hours, 17 minutes and 54 seconds. This was the fastest marathon run by a mother and daughter in the impaired sight classification.
Lucette, 51, who can see blurry colours but has no depth perception, said her 21-year-old daughter’s sporting success was what motivated her to take up running.
“I was inspired by Katie and her elite sporting journey,” she said.
Their remarkable achievement helps us to understand a fascinating instruction that God gives to the Jewish people in this week’s parsha, Acharei Mot: “Don’t copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, and don’t follow the ways of the land of Canaan to which I’m taking you. Keep my rules alone, and faithfully follow my laws: I am God.”
Although there is a debate among the commentators as to which nation was worse – Egypt or Canaan – or whether they were equally bad, everyone agrees that they were unmatched in their wickedness. Therefore it is interesting to note that these two nations appear to be pivotal in the Jewish people’s formation and arrival into the Land of Israel. We essentially escaped one evil host only to reach another.
How do we understand why we are connected to this ancient axis of evil? We can suggest that this is a lesson that applies to us on our own personal journey to greatness. At every significant juncture in our growth there will be challenges which, on the surface, hardly seems fair. Why should it be that if we try hard, and even succeed, should we be met with another, even more difficult challenge, seemingly stunting our development?
The answer is that we should not see challenges as walls that block our route. Rather we should view them as doors which are meant to be opened and obstacles which are meant to be overcome. Even partially-sighted runners can break records!
Here the Torah is telling us something profoundly important about life. It is similar in many ways to a journey or a race and so it is inevitable that we will encounter obstacles along the way. We will be forced to live among and navigate around those whose morals and values are antithetical to our own. But it is how we respond that is key.
We know that God places specific challenges in front of us that he is confident that we can overcome. In fact, it is only because God loves us so much that he enables us to encounter opportunities that will enable us to grow.
Deep down we are conscious of the truth that effortless success is not a symbol of greatness whereas trying to succeed is where greatness is born. This was a lesson we learnt as nation during our formative years being exposed to those wanted us to fall at the first hurdle. Our survival is the reassurance we carry with us throughout the generations.
Rabbi Alex Chapper is at Borehamwood & Elstree Synagogue
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