[Avodah] bat mitzva "bo bayom

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 09:37:55AM +0300, Shoshana L. Boublil wrote:
: And in many communities, birthdays are celebrated (with no connection
: to the American custom).
: My daughters always like to say the following quote (attributed to Rav
: Soloveitchik):

: "Your birthday is the day that Hashem decided that the world couldn't
: go on without you".


I hadn't heard it besheim RYBS. And I'm surprised that he would say
it, it doesn't sound like RYBS's style. Too far from straight Brisk,
even for him, to speak in terms of what Hashem did rather than how we
should respond.

At my nephew's bar mitzvah, my father handed out small posters with a
*similar* sentiment by RAYK. (Did I mention this was in Lakewood?)

RAYK's idea, which I only remember vaguely, was closer to that of the
Gra. We say in Shema "asher Anokhi metzavkha hayom." Did Hashem actually
command us to perform mitzvos today (Elul 19, '768)? The meaning is that
every moment I am alive, every act that I do, I should be thinking that
I was placed there by the Creator. Hashem created the universe such that
this needs to be done. Only I can accomplish this task. It could only
be done here and now -- "today". And so I stand here and now to do this
essential duty, one which is a permanent feature of the universe.

Victor Frankel describes an attitude much like this in his book Man's
Search for Meaning. In his study of how various people managed through
the Holocaust (including himself), he found it was those who associated
meaning with their lives who faired the best. And this was the one
thing the Nazis could not rob of him. Even if all they left him was the
ability to suffer, his suffering too is a task only he could accomplish,
only at that time and place, and the universe is different than the one
it would have been had he chosen to suffer differently.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The trick is learning to be passionate in one's
micha at aishdas.org        ideals, but compassionate to one's peers.
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