To Live, to Think, and to Aspire Broadly
Over the past few weeks, as we have all watched hostages emerge from the confining hell of the Gazan tunnels, I have constantly been thinking about one phrase from Tehilim 118.
מִן-הַמֵּצַר, קָרָאתִי יָּ-הּ;
From the narrows I call to you,
עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָ-הּ
answer me with your breadth. (118:5)
This pasuk, which we recite famously in Hallel, reflects on the moving from narrowness to breadth and has hit my heart in so many ways these days, as a Jew, as an American, and as a global citizen in these challenging times.
For these hostages who have survived the narrow, the meitzar, we have been watching a crippling, jarring shock, and, at the same time, a redeeming opportunity to re-engage. They are emerging from unimaginably confining surroundings, to a wide world of the embrace of family and the possibilities that the world can offer. The narrowness of this crisis finds some comfort not only in the breath of life, but in the breadth, in the merchav, that a life of freedom offers.
Additionally, this pasuk speaks to me when thinking of the hostages and their time in captivity. Time and time again, we hear stories about how people keep their sanity in the narrows. And so, many show their inner strength with merchav, broad thinking.
For example, Agam Berger, who was a hostage for 482 days, answered the challenge of her suffocating conditions by doing her best to keep Shabbat and chagim. She told reporters that reciting Tehilim 119 over and over again in her mind kept her surviving.
Natan Sharansky, the famous Russian refusenik who was in jail for over 9 years in Russia and spent hundreds of days in solitary confinement, survived the meitzar, the confines, by playing countless games of chess, challenging himself intellectually. These victims told themselves that their souls and minds will not be confined and that thinking widely and broadly is how to survive the narrows.
But the lessons of this pasuk can impact us as well as Americans and citizens of the world. Last week, Bret Stephens, award-winning columnist and op-ed contributor, spoke to the student body at Ramaz. He shared many ideas, but one that connects to these lessons is from a thought by Judge Learned Hand. In his 1944 speech, “The Spirit of Liberty” he wrote, “And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes…The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women;”
While all times are ones that require us standing up for our convictions, we, as Americans, Jews and overall contemporary society have taken confidence overboard. It has gotten to a point where people feel that simply listening to the other shows a lack of conviction.
Whether it is around our Shabbat tables, our social media feeds or podcast lists, we spend too much time in the narrowness of our beliefs and definitions. In order to be our best and fulfill Hand’s definition of liberty, we must leave the meitzar of our screens, phones and our silos and raise our eyes to the merchav, the broadness and openness of learning through dialogue with humility and empathy.
And finally, the blessing of merchav, of thinking broadly, should apply to all of us in how we measure our achievements. David Brooks, in his famous column, The Moral Market Place, made the distinction between resume virtues and eulogy or legacy virtues.
“The résumé virtues are the ones you put on your résumé, which are the skills you bring to the marketplace.The eulogy virtues..are deeper: who are you, what is the nature of your relationships, are you bold, loving, dependable, consistent?
Whether we are parents or students or parents of students, we often get caught in a trap. We fall into our own versions of meitzar of narrowness and become singular in what we feel is of lasting value. While resume building and academic achievement are of high importance and ideals to aspire to, we sometimes become too narrow, measuring ourselves, and even our peers by small narrow rubrics, such as grades, internships or college acceptances, rather than aspiring broadly to create lives not only of achievement but of civil discourse, giving, exploration, and meaning.
Rabbi Steinsaltz once beautifully said
אדם משוגע לדבר אחד- אז הוא משוגע, ואין זה משנה לאיזה דבר “When someone is crazy about just one thing, then he is simply meshuga and it doesn’t matter the issue.” He was telling us that God dislikes narrow thinking and to live a life of holiness is to live in the merchav, and to be broad in our aspirations and visions of the life well lived.
As we welcome in a new month tomorrow, and recite in our Hallel
מִן-הַמֵּצַר, קָרָאתִי יָּ-הּ; From the narrows I call to you, let us continue to pray our hearts out for more of our brothers and sisters to be freed from the hell of the ultimate dark and narrow to the embrace of family and nation.
And, in our own lives, let us commit to a life of humility and to thinking, feeling and aspiring with fullness and breadth, with the מֶּרְחָב that being fully human demands.
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