The Big Picture
By Rabbi Berel Wein

(August 27) I have developed a great respect for newspapers since I
embarked on this new journalistic career a few months ago. I now realize
how devilishly difficult it is to fill up pages of newsprint every single day. 
My measly weekly output of around 850 words comes very hard. How much
more difficult must it be to produce the required torrent of words that go into
every edition of a newspaper.

Nevertheless, because they must come out daily, and because bad news sells, 
while good news rarely does, newspapers always tend to emphasize the small picture. 
They record the daily fluctuations of society, emphasize the criminal and aberrant 
behavior of the relatively few amongst us, and concentrate on faults, 
weaknesses and failings. Therefore, any cursory reading of the newspapers in 
Israel - and probably anywhere else, too - may lead one to believe that we live in 
the worst of all times, places and situations, and that there is precious little 
to be optimistic about.

In this month of self-analysis, the month of Elul, I think that it is important to
look at the big picture.

The Jewish people have somehow survived this most awful of all centuries.
In spite of all of the terrible problems that still face us, it would not be an
overstatement to say that we have triumphed. Natan Scharansky is a
minister with a Volvo while Mikhail Gorbachev is unemployed! And this
flippant but true observation is symbolic of much of Jewish life today.

Even though on one hand, American Jewry is being ravaged by assimilation
and intermarriage, on the other hand, it possesses a large and growing core
of committed learned and influential Jews who are determined to grow and
prosper Jewishly.

The State of Israel has accomplished many great things even while certainly
falling short in many small areas. Israel has raised Jewish pride and bolstered
Jewish identity. It has absorbed millions of Jews from all over the world. It
has built a strong army, economy and social structure. It is a democracy, and
a brash one at that. The very earth of the Land has been made fertile and
productive after many centuries of neglect, abuse and misuse.

Despite all the complaints and best efforts of the "professional" secularists,
Israel is a Jewish state. There are probably more full-time Torah students in
Israel now than at any other time in our history since the days of the
Babylonian Talmud. But again, in spite of the complaints of the
non-Orthodox Jewish movements, no one is preventing their adherents from
moving here, establishing their own institutions and competing freely in the
marketplace of ideas and beliefs.

In the big picture, all Jewish institutions, organizations and beliefs, rise or fall
on their own merits and their ability to stand the test of time. It is only a
narrow focus that highlights politics, budgets, illusory power and
bureaucratic snafus.

JEWISH tradition has decreed that on the seven Sabbaths between Tisha
Be'av and Rosh Hashana, special chapters taken from the Book of Isaiah
are read as the haftara, which follows the Torah reading in the synagogue
service. These are called the "seven [chapters] of consolation and comfort."

In these chapters, Isaiah, the same prophet who foretold the destruction of
the First Temple and who blistered the Jewish people with his words of
chastisement over our moral failings, paints a picture of Israel reborn.

He draws a picture on a very large canvas. He speaks of the blessing of
agricultural bounty and delicious fruits, of hills of honey and fields of flowers
and grain. He portrays a scene of the return of Jewish exiles to their home.
Some will come in tears and some in laughter, some will be lame and sick
and halt, while others will march upright and strong. But they will all come!

Those who are sunk in the abyss of persecution and despair and those who
are awash in the false prosperity of material goods and the pursuit of wealth,
will also all come someday. The old and the young, the dark and the fair, the
learned and the uneducated - they will all come!

When I lived in the Diaspora I was always impressed and even emotionally
moved by Isaiah's words. But since I have come to Israel, and I see the
literal fulfillment of his prophecies before my eyes, I am uplifted and
recharged every Shabbat during this season.

Isaiah helps me see the big picture. Thus I am consoled and comforted,
revived and strengthened. It is what allows me to go about doing daily battle
with the small stuff, until all of Jewish life can be by everyone in its larger
perspective.