The Big Blur

The new normal (Times of Israel)

On this Erev Shabbos before Pesach (Erev Shabbos HaGadol) - as we are all going crazy in a world we don’t recognize anymore I want to recognize my daughter, Rivkie Greenland’s thoughtful message – a prayer really. With serious illness and death all around us, it speaks to me. And I think it speaks to a lot of people. It was posted a few days ago on her Facebook page. I offer it here in its entirety. 

Everyone have a  safe, healthy, and peaceful Shabbos. - HM

I literally have no recollection of what I was kvetching about before corona came and attacked. It's all kind of a blur, really. I mean, there was chit chat about some weird virus out there in the world and then—whoosh— it was Purim..and I literally have no memory of anything else after that.

What's been squishing around in my head these days is the tefillah that we say for a lost item: "Hakol B'chezkas Sumin ad SheHakadosh Baruch Hu, Meir es Eineiheim." Everyone is considered blind until Hashem opens their eyes. It's really a declaration, a recognition, that nothing is lost from Hashem. He is in charge. He knows exactly where everything is. Everything. 

And when do we merit to find something we lost? When we give up control, and the thought that it is us who finds things....when we accept that if it's meant to be found, it will be, and the minute Hashem is ready for us to find it, He'll show it to us.

How many times have we found a lost object and it was right there in front of our face the whole time? Like in a place we've looked 1000 times! But until the very moment Hashem wanted it to be seen, it was hidden in plain sight.

We have all lost something. In an instant, life as we knew it changed forever. It was here a second ago, and now it's gone! And we are all walking around and searching. Searching for reasons. Searching for answers. Searching for purpose. Searching for meaning. And above all, searching for yeshuos and refuos.

With God's help, we won't stop searching. And the minute Hashem is ready for us to find what we're looking for, He will show it to us. And like when we pray for a lost object, it's as if Hashem is waiting for our communal declaration, "Everyone is considered blind until Hashem opens their eyes....It is You, not us, who is in charge."

Hashem, we know we are not really lost. We know we are just temporarily blind, waiting for you to open our eyes. Please help us to be ready and worthy to see what we can't see. We know that when You feel we are ready, You will not wait one extra second to show us what we all need to see. Until then, we will keep searching and deepening our understanding that nothing happens until you will it to be.