Jewish Life #21. Five Times Yes!

 Five times Yes for a healthy, meaningful and joyful life
 
Storytelling and a message for students of YTA, Yerusalem Torah Academy, by dr. Gershom Kloens, 2 Cheshvan, 5785 (3-11-2024)
 
1.   Yes to life in generalVictor Frankl, a famous colleague and teacher of my, wrote a book with this title: Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything. Frankl highlights the gift of life, a gift by Hashem and is challenging us to look at everything in life as an opportunity. 
In Devarim 30:19 we read: Choose life! The Jewish people are commanded to be pro-life. Hashem gives us the instructions, day by day, to live by this statement; in spite of everything. This means a YES to life despite all struggles: with Hashem himself, yourself and others. Being able to say Yes to life is related to a meaningful and purposeful life.
 
2.   Yes to yourselfHillel famously wrote: “If I am not there for myself, who will be for me?” (Pirkei Avot, 1:14).
Hillel emphasizes the importance of individuality and healthy self-esteem. A person needs a healthy self-esteem to successfully meet life’s challenges. Hillel emphasizes the importance of a person’s valid awareness of his abilities and character traits, his deficiencies as well as his strengths (the ‘good enough-principle’). The concept of individuality, the personal soul, is a matter of personal responsibility. A person’s primary duty is to himself: “If I am not for me, who is for me?” When God calls, the greatest reply is simply Hineni, “Here I am,” ready to heed His call, to mend a fragment of His all-broken world. In my teaching I call the ‘I’ or ‘Self’ 'the left leg of the personality'
 
3.   Yes to relationshipsSecond, Hillel emphasizes the importance of intimacy and relationships [second part of saying 1:14]. Man is not only an individual. He is a social being too. Self-esteem and relationships are closely intertwined. Relationships, the concept of space or place, is a matter of ethical and social responsibility. Man is called upon to contribute to the well-being of others and society as a whole: “If I am only for myself, who am I?”
Rav Soloveitchik highlights the importance of solid relationships, with Hashem and others, with the typology of Covenantal Man. See: Blog#19, https://www.drgershom.com/blogs
In my teaching I call this 'the right leg of the personality' and as the good enough- principle of the Self’, also ‘good-enough. 
One of the main challenges for a person is the constant search for the right balance between self and others. A healthy, well-balanced personality seeks to blend self-respect and respect for others (see my upcoming book about Social-Identity Man, Q4/ Pomerantz).
 
4.   Yes to creativityAccording to the Rav, man is additional to a Covenantal Man, a creative and majestic personality who espouses a practical-utilitarian approach to the world. He is guided by the quest for dignity, attained by control over his environment. Derived from the first chapter of book of Genesis (Bereshit), man is a social being and creates a ‘natural work community’ by displaying a positive attitude toward the development of civilization: man’s likeness to God [imitatio Dei] expresses itself in man’s striving and ability to become a creator. Natural man is blessed with a great drive for creative activity and immeasurable resources for the realization of this goal. He wants to dominate the natural forces, directed by his desire to better his own position vis-à-vis his environment. God has given him the mandate to do so, to subdue and control nature. He is man-natura. His creative nature is willed and directed by his Maker. Soloveitchik: ‘Halakhic Man is a man who longs to create, to bring into being something new, something original’ (Halakhic Man, p. 99). 
Just as every person is unique, everyone's creative contribution to a better world is unique.
 
5.   Yes to joyJoy (Simcha) is a supreme emotion, and above all, a social emotion. Recently we read the Book of Kohelet, in which Simcha is key. In Vayikra 23:40 we read: ‘You must rejoice before Hashem, your God’. Saying Yes to life = a life of joy. 
 
In sum, say Yes to school, your teachers, your friends, be yourself, be creative and be a living witness of Hashem in this fractured world. According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Judaism is a religion of continuity. That’s why we need our people to say Yes, being able to live a meaningful life. 
 
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