Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein’s
Thought for the Day 

“For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heavens.” This verse and the ones that follow from the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes are hugely relevant throughout our lives. But they may never have been so pervasively poignant than during this last year.

As a result of the pandemic, we’ve experienced so many of the circumstances and emotions of which Ecclesiastes speaks. We, or members of our family or friends, may have been through “a time to be born, and a time to die; … a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” And for all of us, there has been “a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.”

Now, as our country emerges from the worst of it, and as the warmth of spring bathes us in sunlight, this could be our time to take account of what we have lost and what we have gained for ourselves and our broader community.

“To everything there is a season.” But sometimes, even as a season wanes, there are lingering memories of the joy it may have brought, the loveliness of what unexpectedly has been implanted within us. The passing of each season is sometimes wistful and tinged with melancholy, but it can also be filled with the expectation of a new beginning, filled with hope and anticipation for the wonder and the possibilities that await us.

There’s the possibility of a new love – or a deeper love for the person with whom you have chosen to spend your life. There’s the possibility of discovering a part of ourselves that blossomed this past year: new-found empathy for the disenfranchised or for those who suffer from inequity in our nation; gratitude for those in our community we never appreciated or appreciated enough before. The possibility of discovering a new passion for something which now occupies and invigorates us.

Or there’s the possibility of being blessed with the miracle of new life brought into this world and your family as a gift of happiness — a gift that extends beyond a smile on your lips and radiates from your entire being.

Even in the darkest times, there are always glimmers of hope to be nourished — hopes that can lead to the discovery of new paths to be traveled, new opportunities to be grasped. Even with all the losses experienced this past year, I believe that the passing of seasons, with spring and summer soon to be in full glory, should not only light our physical world, but also light and nourish the incipient decency and potential for goodness within us. After all, “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heavens.” Or to put it another way, just around the corner is just around the corner.

So let us lift our spirits! As one of my favorite poets wrote (with a minor edit): “A person’s reach should exceed their grasp. Or what’s a heaven for?”

Let’s get on with it!