South African Chief Rabbi on searching for meaning

• Author: WARREN GOLDSTEIN
• Published date: 27 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The pandemic, in particular, has overturned all our certainties. Who would have thought that modern, industrialized, powerful nations could be brought to their knees by a virus? Who would have thought that children could be kept away from school for months on end right across the globe? Who would have thought entire countries could be "locked down", industry and commerce frozen, entire populations confined to their homes?

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It hasn't all been doom and gloom. The Gaza war ended and tensions calmed. And even as the virus persists, the global vaccine rollout has been remarkable, and results continue to show that the vaccine provides effective protection from hospitalization and serious illness.

But even with these blessings, it has been a traumatic year for us all and uncertainty persists.

Moments of crisis provoke within us some of the deepest questions – questions that, when life is more stable and certain, tend to be buried under the comforting hum of daily activity. These kinds of questions arise at times of personal upheaval – the loss of a close family member or friend, debilitating illness, the loss of a job.

Trauma jolts us out of our complacency, upends the certainties in our lives and forces us to reflect. When all of our expectations are overturned – when everything becomes so unpredictable, so unfamiliar – we are compelled to re-examine life and everything we thought we knew. We ask ourselves searching questions about the very nature of our existence: What is the purpose of life? Are we here merely to survive? What do we want from life? Why are we here? Is there some higher meaning behind it all?

We can try to ignore these gnawing questions; pretend they don't exist. We can distract ourselves with our daily routines or find diversion in the entertainment industry, so expertly developed to deliver escapism from reality. We can bury the deepest, most troubling questions about the meaning of our lives. It is a real temptation.

It is a temptation that Noah succumbed to when he tried to face the future after the great flood that destroyed the world. It was the most traumatic experience humanity has ever endured; a torrential downpour that continued unabated for weeks and literally washed away human civilization.

Noah and his family were the only survivors. They survived the flood by taking refuge in a miraculous ark, which provided a sanctuary from the turmoil raging outside. In the ark was everything needed to rebuild the world after the flood, including representatives from the animal kingdom, and even branches of different trees and vegetation.

When the storm subsided and Noah left the ark, one of the very first things he did was to replant the vine, which he had watered and nurtured on the ark. Later, he harvested the grapes, made wine and drank himself into oblivion.

He sought solace and escape from the trauma he'd endured through the numbing effect of wine. Our sages in the Midrash take him to task for this action and say he should have instead planted an olive branch – which he had also nourished on the ark throughout the flood.

What is the essential difference between the vine and the olive tree? They symbolize different responses to trauma and turmoil. The vine represents the response of escapism; of seeking to dull the pain and avoid the difficult questions. Wine allows us to distract ourselves from difficult predicaments so that we can go on with life as if nothing happened. As if our world was never really turned upside down.

The olive tree is the opposite response. It produces olive oil, which served as the fuel used to light the menorah in the Temple. The olive tree thus represents wisdom, light and clarity. It represents our desire to confront pure truths about the meaning of life, rather than retreating into giddy delights and escapist pleasures. In his great moment of truth, Noah instead chose escapism.

We have the same choice as we begin to emerge from this time of crisis and uncertainty. We can choose to distract ourselves with chores and work, or escapist pursuits, and avoid all the profound questions. Or we can face the truths of our existence head on.

The urge to avoid the truths of life can sometimes feel irresistible. But it is short-sighted. Eventually, escapism is really no escape at all. Without confronting these existential questions, our anxiety will simmer beneath the surface, and we will always be haunted by their presence, lurking at the back of our minds like shadows, waiting to come out at the next crisis.

And there will always be another crisis. We all, one day, have to face the greatest personal crisis of all – death itself, which no one escapes. Death forces us to confront the most painful existential questions of all. If life is so fleeting, does it mean anything? What...