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Americans still are scrambling to adjust to the new economic realities that have ravaged our nation more than a year and a half ago. We are making sacrifices and learning how to live with less. Our jobs are gone and suddenly we find ourselves knocking on doors and filling out online job applications until our eyes can barely focus on the computer screen. We now are willing to do whatever it takes to meet our responsibilities, knowing full well that we are no longer working at jobs we were trained to do nor what gives us a personal sense of challenge. We are grateful to find work, receive a pay check and put food on the table.
We have learned to live with uncertainty, realizing we are not out of the economic recession or depression -- the terms one uses depend entirely on one's job status. Looking ahead to 2010, the major lesson of 2009 might be learning how to take a second look at the role our religious traditions can play to support us in difficult times. Religion is supposed to help us cope with uncertainty and make sense of an unpredictable world. The ritual and ethos of religion strive to instill and preserve the moral order in our society.
Religion can be the last resort to sustain spirits in uncertain times. Despite our plans for a secure future, there are powers above us -- and not the divine one -- that can turn our life around on a dime. An old Jewish proverb says, "Man makes plans and God laughs." I don't think we can blame the Almighty for what was the most profound contagion of 2008-09 -- human greed, not the swine flu. This is, however, the moment when by sitting in the pews, concentrating on the real meaning of the prayers and applying the lessons of our respective Scriptures to our own lives, that religion can counteract cynicism.
The underlying test is to demonstrate perseverance and not give up hope that we shall prevail in the long run. So many of religion's ancient stories show how people defy the odds against the power of evil and triumph through faith. Similarly, America's greatness is not only based upon enormous economic and financial resources. What we forget is that our nation's resilience, and in particular its ability to rebound in the face of a crisis, is due to its spiritual resources.
Our synagogues, churches and mosques represent a moral and spiritual firewall against uncertainty. It has been not only our belief to look out for No. 1, but to care for everyone. My mother tells the story that in the days of the Great Depression her mother used to make an extra casserole, instructing her daughter to take it down the street to the family she knew had nothing to eat. That is the spirit of religion we desperately need to revive for 2010.
Cynics who take a dim view of faith are watching the religious community to see if we are making a difference or are indifferent to suffering and focused only on our own needs. I would like to see a 2010 when we can share our resources with others in need and despite differences in skin color, religion or even politics recognize that we are struggling with the same economic issues and that we have the same base of spiritual resources to prevail against those challenges.
This year has taught us how a merciless core of greed came close to a meltdown, spreading its radioactive fallout through every home. What a true miracle it would be that the year 2010 came to symbolize how faith in God and in humanity brought us back from the abyss of financial ruin to emerge stronger and wiser, not only secure with jobs but also feeling certain that we do have the spiritual resources to meet any challenge without turning against each other.
Rabbi Brad L. Bloom is the rabbi at Congregation Beth Yam on HiltonHead Island. He can be reached at 843-689-2178.
