Today we learned about the Tower of Babel; a generation that wanted to build a tower high enough for the purpose of waging a war with Hashem — to make Him no longer their master. They lost their unity with Hashem. In their eyes, Hashem had lost significance. They thought they could exist outside of God because they had lost their appreciation.
Our relationship with God is pure beautiful light, yet it gets covered in the darkness that exists within our lack of appreciation. Sometimes just like the people of Babel, we forget to acknowledge the joys God bestows upon us. There is so much light in life; the light of our child singing and giving, the light of our hands moving. Yet sometimes, just like the people of Babel, we cover all this light in the darkness that lacks of appreciation. The darkness which over shadows this beautiful light occurs when we lack the unity and our dependence on Hashem in areas of our life.
Hannah (right) together with her friend smile and laugh during another fulfilling and meaningful day at Yarchei Kallah.
Further into the day, Yarchea Kallah gave us the opportunity for our light to shine through in a whole new way. Everyone wrote a Dvar Torah on Teshuva, returning to our true selves. For many teens, this was the very first Dvar Torah they had ever written in their lives. Listening to teens pour their heart out about their experiences of returning to God helped me connect to the inspiring aspect of Teshuva — the joy and unconditional gratitude one feels once they have returned.
Teshuva is allowing the light to shine through in areas of life where one needs help and direction. Hashem does not punish us, he challenges us. It appears that the punishment for this lack of appreciation for the people of Babel was that God created an inability to communicate with one another, “Come let us descend and there confuse their language” (Genesis, Chapter 11, Verse 7). Challenge is a beautiful thing. One of my challenges it to take the perspective of darkness in any given situation and reveal the light that was always there.
Special thanks to Raquel for helping me write this post!