Happy Anniversary
This week my husband and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. The night of our wedding, October 18, 1993, was the night of my in-laws' 24th wedding anniversary (which means, and I've done the math for you, that they are celebrating their 48th).
As we reflected on this sobering thought, it occurred to us how very much has transpired in the past 24 years - all of which were complete unknowns to us on our wedding night. Our kids who would be born, the places we've lived, jobs we've had, ups and downs, JFX, and all of you. We wondered what the next 24 years would bring, praying and hoping for 24 more years of peace, health, and prosperity.
Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler in his classic Torah work Strive for Truth describes the "not-knowing" of the future thus: imagine the universe as a rotating sphere, encapsulated by a cover. The cover conceals the entire sphere, save for a pinhole that, like the cover it's part of, is constantly moving. That pinhole allows you to peek through - but only for one fleeting glimpse at a time. We can never clearly see through the cover.
The sphere is our reality; the cover is our inability to access past or future. The pinhole is the present moment. Rabbi Dessler explains that humankind is incapable of truly reliving the past, and likewise incapable of knowing the future. All we really have is our present moment.
To God, however, he continues, the cover is transparent. God sees past, present, and future as one entity. He can access all at any time. God created time and is therefore its master. While this concept is deep and hard to grasp with our human, time-oriented brain, one thing is simple and clear: we can't visit the past or the future.
This human inability, and the drive to access that which is inaccessibly, has been the subject of many a sci-fi or fantasy book and movie. Time machines and time travel have gripped the imagination of so many. So often we wish would could go back in time and relive or redo certain moments. But with all our technology and know-how, we cannot. So often we wish we could reach out and touch the future - but we cannot (we can reach out touch someone, though).
Looking back at 24 years of wedded bliss (mostly), and really meditating on how much we didn't know as we stood under the chuppah that day at La Malfa Party Center in Mentor, made us solemnly aware of how limited and vulnerable we are in the basic unknowability of what lies ahead. We celebrated with a prayer: May the next 24 years bring only joy and blessings.
But in truth, we simply don't know. And that's a good thing. Surprise me, God. You're doing a great job so far.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ruchi
