- Clergy
- Shabbat
There is a story -- perhaps an urban legend -- concerning the famous violinist Itzhak Perlman. One evening, Perlman was in New York to give a concert. At this point in his life, he wore braces on both legs and walked with two crutches. Perlman crossed the stage painfully slowly, until he reached the chair in which he seated himself to play.
As soon as he appeared on stage that night, the audience applauded and then waited respectfully as he made his way slowly across the stage. He took his seat, signaled to the conductor, and began to play.
No sooner had he finished the first few bars than one of the strings on his violin snapped. At that point Perlman was close enough to the beginning of the piece that it would have been reasonable to bring the concert to a halt while he replaced the string to begin again. But that's not what he did. He waited a moment and then signaled the conductor to pick up just where they had left off.
Perlman now had only three strings with which to play his soloist part. He was able to find some of the missing notes on adjoining strings, but where that wasn't possible, he had to rearrange the music on the spot in his head so that it all still held together.
He played with passion and artistry, spontaneously rearranging the symphony right through to the end. When he finally rested his bow, the audience sat for a moment in stunned silence. And then they rose to their feet and cheered wildly. They knew they had been witness to an extraordinary display of human skill and ingenuity.
Perlman raised his bow to signal for quiet. "You know," he said, "sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much beautiful music you can still make with what you have left."
One has to wonder, was he speaking of his violin strings snapping or his own crippled body? We are all lacking something in our lives, and we are all challenged to answer the question: Do I have the ability to make beauty out of what I have, incomplete as it may be?
The Hebrew term for gratitude is Hakarat Hatov, which means, literally, "recognizing the good." Practicing gratitude means calling attention to the good that is already yours. It’s not a thought, it’s an action. You have to actively search for the good in your life, each and every day.
Perhaps that is why the Talmud (Menahot 43b) commands us to say one hundred blessings a day. I know what you are thinking, but Cantor, that sounds like a lot of blessings. I promise you, if the Talmud challenged us to come up with one hundred things to complain about every day, my guess is that we could all do that in about three minutes. Gratitude is about changing our perspective.
A few years back Forbes came out with a list of ways to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. This article promised that with only 8 weeks of practice, it was scientifically proven to alter the way that our brains perceive the world around us.
I’ll share a few of them with you here:
- Don’t be picky, appreciate everything.
- Find Gratitude in your challenges: sometimes our negative experiences help to clarify what it is that we are most grateful for.
- Practice mindfulness: sit down every day and think of 5 things that you are most grateful for. Sit with this image in your mind, and recognize what gratitude feels like in your body.
- Keep a gratitude journal: write down the positives in your life, so that when troubles come up, you can sit down and reference all of the good.
- Volunteer. Helping others helps you
We have to consciously choose to recognize the good, even when things might not always seem so great. I promise to you, there is still so much good around us. We just have to look for it. But it’s there, and it’s powerful.
On this Shabbat of Thanksgiving, I pray that we have eyes that are open to the blessings that are always with us and around us.
With abundant gratitude for this community.
Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Lisa