Shift your vision from earth to the heavens

Inspiration

By Rick Sherwin

After 17 years in Florida, we finally visited the Kennedy Space Center. Living in Orlando, we are accustomed to theme parks: Disney, Universal, Sea World, even Legoland and Gator Land. KSC is anything but a theme park. Upon arrival, visitors are greeted with John F. Kennedy’s 1962 statement: “The eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, by but by a banner of freedom and peace.”

The world today is not accustomed to looking up to the sky with a sense of hope, but rather we “look out” at the world with a sense of resignation, perhaps even despair. All too often, we walk through life with a sense of skewed normality: the quest for power is accepted as normal, the quest for profits is accepted as normal, the quest to give priority to self-interest is accepted as normal. In time, normality stands in the way of hope.

Derived from the Latin “mundus” meaning world, the word “mundane” carries the meaning of routine and ordinary. We convey this sense when we speak of being down-to-earth, of having earthly possessions, and with such sayings as ‘there’s no way on earth.’ In JFK’s speech calling for landing on the moon by the end of the decade, he called for us to reach the stars constructively. We must fill space not with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

Our challenge is to shift our perspective from earth to the heavens, from mundanity to hope, from what is to what ought to be. Our goal is for humanity to work together as one team, respecting individual differences in race, ethnicity, religion, gender orientation and identity, and socio-economic status. As the Talmudic Sages teach: We might not be able to accomplish the goal, but each of us must do our part to bring the world one step closer to the way it needs to be. We can only take those steps when we extend our hands to others and walk together with head held high towards the brightness of tomorrow.

Look at the night sky and feel a sense of future and hope. We need to shift our focus from making history to embracing destiny. With the help of the heavens, we WILL find tomorrow's brightness, as difficult as today's path might be. Ad Astra Per Aspera: Even the roughest path can lead straight to the stars.

Shabbat shalom!

Rick Sherwin is the Rabbi at Congregation Beth Am in Longwood. He is a graduate of UCLA and was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He energetically fills spiritual services and educational programs with creativity, relevance, dialogue and humor.