It Was All About the Sand

HaRav Avraham Schorr reminds us that after Akeidas Yitzchak, Hashem gave Avraham Avinu the brocha of the stars and the brocha of the sand.

He then asks: “Why did he need the brocha of sand if he had the brocha of stars?  The stars are much greater in numerous ways.”  

In EmunahSpeak: A Gut Rehab we spoke about what our focus should be in the wake of the devastation wrought by Sandy when we pointed out that In the ruins of Long Beach, Belle Harbor, Seagate, and Staten Island, to name but a few of the worst hit areas, Hashem has revealed to us where we go from here. The gut rehab that hundreds of us are doing to all or part of our houses is a moshol for the gut rehab we have to do to ourselves….Simply put, in paralleling what we are doing to our houses we have to rip out our gaiva, taiva, kas, and kina and toss it into the dumpster with the sheet rock.

That’s certainly the way out of the mess in which we find ourselves, but how did we get into it in the first place?

Rav Schorr answers by way of the question he posed above by revealing to us that sand has the midda (attribute) of yira (fear) while the waves have the midda of ahava.  And not so incidentally, sand keeps the waves within their designated boundaries.

And on that score he lets us know that the back story of Sandy is nothing less than a thoroughly soaked inyan of midda keneged midda. 

The basic destruction caused by Sandy happened because the waves of the Yam (sea)went over its boundaries. The sand didn’t stop the Yam because we were missing the midda of yira that is supposed to keep our tumultuous personal yam in check.

And how did we lose our midda of fear?

The word no was removed from our vocabulary vis á vis our indulgence in gashmius as we let our yam run amuck without boundaries.

As we said in EmunahSpeak: Was it Just a Storm? Leaving aside those who were displaced from their homes because Sandy had invaded their actual living space as opposed to their basement or a rental unit, the moshol (that the gut rehab we are doing to our houses is a moshol for what we have to do to ourselves) was apparently a tad north of where most of the rest of us were holding because rather than use the sheet rock etc. as a template for the heavy lifting that a real Tikkun HaMiddos would require, we did the opposite.

We remodeled instead with a better floor (ceramic tile), carpet, appliances, doors and anything else we could get the insurance company and/or FEMA to pay for. 

It’s bad enough that many of us seem to lack understanding as to where we go from here.  But what’s worse, as per our penchant for remodeling and as Rav Schorr makes clear, is that we are even clueless as to how we got here in the first place.

So on the designated Yom HaDin Hashem followed our lead and let the yam devour the sand that was supposed to hold it in check.

It was not for nothing that it was called Sandy.