Let There Be Light

Today, there is barely a home in the whole world that doesn’t contain at least one light bulb. It’s hard to think of an invention that has had quite as much impact on our day-to-day living as the simple light bulb. But the light bulb didn’t come easy. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light-bulb, was known to have made roughly 900 different experiments, where he would create a light-bulb by hand, and then put it into a machine hoping it would light up, and instead, it blew up in his face. Imagine all of the people on the sidelines telling him to forget about his crazy ideas, and stop trying to do the impossible. Luckily for us, he ignored those negative voices, and persisted in his attempts to make a bulb that actually worked, and eventually, he did it. We have light in our homes today, because of him.

In our own way, we are all trying to bring some spiritual light into this world, and reveal G-d’s goodness in the world. Remember, the main spiritual mission of the Jewish people is to be “a light unto the nations.” G-d wants each of us to look at the skills that we’ve been given and to see how we can harness the talents that we possess to generate more of G-d’s light in the world.

How could this work in practice? Well, I recently got a very inspirational email from a medical doctor who is now working on his PhD.  He’s a brilliant man, but by itself, that’s not going to create a lot of spiritual light in the world. But now, in addition to his medical research he’s also devouring the books of Rabbi Arush in English, and he’s learning them with his wife, and using the child-rearing techniques with his children. This man asked me: “Reb Zev, I see what you’re doing with emuna and psychology, is someone trying to do the same thing with medicine yet?”

I said that I didn’t know – but maybe he’ll end up doing it himself! Maybe he’ll be the “go to” doctor for all the other doctors to go to, to understand how to integrate emuna with their medical knowledge. Can you imagine how much light we could put into the world if we could connect modern medicine together to all the spiritual wisdom contained in our holy books? It boggles the mind.

Where do we start with all this? Very simply: we just need to go out, look for the hints, and start talking to G-d about what He really wants from us. We also need to realize that a lot of the time, we don’t have to accomplish everything in one sitting. G-d might give us a little here, and a little more there, and it’s only at the very end of the process that it will come together into a useful and cohesive whole.

One of my professors, Dr Sidney Rosen, was a prolific writer, but one day, he had a severe case of writer’s block, and just couldn’t get anything done. He went to get some advice from his mentor who told him that he was making a big mistake, thinking that he had to write the paper in one sitting. What’s more, he also didn’t have to start writing the beginning. He could write the end first, or even the middle, and then connect it all together as the final step of the process…

If we’re blocked in some way and we’re starting to get all tense and worked-up, the answer is not to try to force the issue. Instead, let’s listen to the message G-d is giving us, and take a break. Maybe go and eat something, or do some housework, or take a walk – and it’s precisely then that you’ll get your answer, or your breakthrough, and you’ll get the burst of creativity you need to be unblocked, and to start working productively again.

Once you start to think about your emuna, you’ll get such a wonderful feeling of security, because you won’t have to worry about or search for the answers to your issues any more. You’ll realize that the answers are all around you and within you, and that all you really have to do is just pay attention to them. When we have emuna, we relax, because we don’t have to go chasing after things anymore. We know that sooner or later, we are going to figure everything out, and that G-d is going to send it to us via our own sensory apparatus. Just trust that there’s a rich environment within us and around us, and that the wisdom is already here, and that all you have to do is to learn how to use it and to draw on it, then you will become a calm, peaceful person with no worries who will surely bring more light into our world too.