{"id":78078,"date":"2020-07-26T14:54:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T11:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78078"},"modified":"2020-07-26T14:54:21","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T11:54:21","slug":"stepping-back-to-make-room-for-a-bigger-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/stepping-back-to-make-room-for-a-bigger-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping Back To Make Room For A Bigger Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jonah\u2019s mission to rebuke the people of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, poses a conflict for Jonah that is tantamount to a crisis of faith. An accepted opinion among our sages is that Jonah knew that Assyria was destined to be the arm of the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and personally didn\u2019t want the Ninevites to repent. Repentance would bring salvation to Nineveh, while persistence in their evil ways would surely mean their destruction. How could he conscientiously be the vehicle through which the destruction of Israel was allowed to play out?<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a very human condition to want to believe that a just world will see good rewarded and evil punished. But this is not to be decided only by Jonah\u2019s lived experience but through God\u2019s lens of absolute truth. Jonah\u2019s view of the world was but a single piece of the picture. Nevertheless, even though Jonah was not able to appreciate the overarching plan, God still called upon him to participate in it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonah\u2019s condition is apparent even after the people of Nineveh repented. He wasn\u2019t just sad about what that meant for the future of Israel, he was outright \u201cangry\u201d (Jonah 4:1) and explained himself to God in this way: \u201cI knew that You are a gracious God, compassionate, long-suffering and abundant in mercy.\u201d But he couldn\u2019t reconcile God\u2019s mercy and the notion of a bigger plan with his own limited view of a just world.<\/span><\/p>\n

I, too, experienced this condition on a recent trip to Warsaw to visit the areas where my pre-Holocaust family lived, and the Ghetto from which many of them perished. As my guide took me through a beautiful, thriving city I was disturbed, even angry. From my viewpoint, Warsaw deserved to be a poor, dirty, downtrodden place. How could I reconcile for myself this vibrant, prosperous place with what I knew of its past?<\/span><\/p>\n

Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller-Gottleib offers that it was only when Jonah was able to \u201ctranscend his ego and surrender his need to try controlling events\u201d that he was able to accept his mission and participate in God\u2019s plan. So too do those of us who suffer from the tunnel vision of our personal lenses need to learn to step back from our positions so we can participate in God\u2019s plan and fulfill our missions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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