The value of an unknown future

The media is not known for its affinity for the religious establishment. Yet, it could be the media unknowingly will help create a religious revival.  With the constant conjectures of what the future holds: will Greece default, will Israel attack Iran, and what will be with this so called Arab spring, the media is creating a culture of dealing with an unknown future on a consistent basis.  This creates a mentality that the future will be different, that what there is now won’t be.  Used healthily, this creates growth, unhealthily, paranoia. Either way, this mentality originated with Abraham, who popularized an orientation towards the future.

                The first communication that G-d has with the future Jewish nation is as follows: ‘ And G-d says to Avraham, go forth from your land, your birth place, and from the house of your father to the land which I will show you’.  In other words, G-d says to Abraham, get out of your comfort zone, and go somewhere unknown.  So Abraham grabs his wife and nephew as well as his stuff and goes.  Then we have a strange verse that says ‘…and he went out to go to the land of Canaan and he came to the land of Canaan’. That is akin to saying: ‘I took a flight to Chicago and landed in Chicago.’  Well, where else exactly was I supposed to go that I have to tell you that my flight actually landed in Chicago? What this tells us is that when it comes to the land of Canaan, present day Israel, the place is the journey.  The leaving to go is the arrival.  The very nature of the place will always be unknown, and for someone who lives in Israel, this couldn’t be closer to the truth.  The very existence of Israel is consistently under threat because we are not supposed to know what will be. Why? To shed the status quo habitually is growth.

                On a deeper note, this is the foundation of faith.  It is the idea that I live with desire to change the future even if I don’t know exactly how it will turn out.  Why? Because the nature of infinity is that it is always beyond our grasp, therefore, all we have is the striving.