Action As Reaction To Tragedy

As we as a Jewish community heard of the horror that happened in Pittsburgh,  we all felt for the victims, as they were part of our extended Jewish family.  As we approach the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we contemplate the anti-Semitism that still exists in our world.  When we face tragedy, what is the message that such a tragedy can provide for our children? 

I recently finished reading Dr. Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning. Frankl, in addition to being a psychiatrist, was a Holocaust survivor.  In his book, he writes of his days in Auschwitz and why certain camp inmates were able to “survive” - physically and emotionally. His overall theory was that finding meaning, even in suffering, is the reason they continued living.  

Frankl was the founder “logotherapy” - stressing three main principles 1. Freedom of will. 2. Will to meaning. 3. Meaning of Life. The primary motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life, and only we have the ability to find that meaning, even when it is difficult.  “A man who let himself decline because he could not see any future goal found himself occupied with retrospective thoughts.” The ability to choose one’s attitude about in any given set of circumstances, says Frankl, can never be taken away.  “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread...they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the  last of the human freedoms- to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances…When we are no longer able to change a situation- just think of an incurable disease such on inoperable cancer- we are challenged to change ourselves.”  To continue finding meaning in life, one must have a goal and realize that life is still expecting something from him.  “A man who knows ‘why’ for his existence, will be able to bear almost any ‘how’.” It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”

As I read Frankl’s book, I continually said to myself, “This is so familiar! This is Torah’s view!” It is no coincidence, said Rabbi Reuven Bulka in his Jewish Action  article right after Frankl’s death that “he would often tell Frankl that his book was very popular in the Yeshiva world.”  (And, also no coincidence that so many of the early psychoanalysts were Jewish, and that many of the most recent forms of successful treatment were created by Jewish psychologists).  Bechira chofshit- free choice and the ability of man to overcome his Yetzer Hara is the mainstay of this theory.  Frankl says, “Certainly man has instincts, but these instincts do not have him….In other words, there must have been freedom of decision. We are concerned above all with man’s freedom to accept or reject his instincts.” He similarly asserts the power of man over his environment, and one’s attitude towards the environment.  And, a life in which man simply pursues pleasure has no meaning. As it says in Avot 3:15

הַכֹּל צָפוּי, וְהָרְשׁוּת נְתוּנָה, וּבְטוֹב הָעוֹלָם נִדּוֹן. וְהַכֹּל לְפִי רֹב הַמַּעֲשֶׂה:
Everything is foreseen, and freewill is given, and with goodness the world is judged. And all is in accordance to the majority of the deed.

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  One way that Frankl says that we can discover meaning in life is through “doing a deed.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his article “The Pursuit of Meaning” writes, “Frankl used to say that the way to find meaning was not to ask what we want from life. Instead we should ask what life wants from us. We are each, he said, unique: in our gifts, our abilities, our skills and talents, and in the circumstances of our life. For each of us, then, there is a task only we can do. This does not mean that we are better than others. But if we believe we are here for a reason, then there is a tikkun, a mending, only we can perform, a fragment of light only we can redeem, an act of kindness or courage or generosity or hospitality, even a word of encouragement or a smile, only we can perform, because we are here, in this place, at this time, facing this person at this moment in their lives.

‘Life is a task’, he used to say, and added,’The religious man differs from the apparently irreligious man only by experiencing his existence not simply as a task, but as a mission.” He or she is aware of being summoned, called, by a Source. “For thousands of years that source has been called God.”

Rabbi Bulka highlights that according to Frankl life is not judged quantitatively, but qualitatively. As Frankl said, “It is not from the length of its span that we can ever draw conclusions as to a life’s meaningfulness...The heroic life of one who has died young certainly has more content and meaning than the existence of some long-lived dullard. Sometimes the ‘unfinished’ are among the most beautiful symphonies.”

When one considers the “unfinished lives” of those who perished in Pittsburgh one must remember the importance of the meaningful deed.  “And all is in accordance to the majority of the deed.”. We know that generally speaking after a tragedy hits empowering children and adults to act and do something meaningful helps them feel more in control.  This video which has been going around stresses that the reaction to tragedy needs to be action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_IWNcSIerg. And, as Rabbi Knapp addressed the middle school the Monday following the attack, he spurred them on, through sharing a story that had happened to him that weekend, to actions of kindness.  

We cannot always control that which happens around us or to us, but we can control our reactions and our actions after the fact.  May the memories of those who perished in Pittsburgh spur us on to positive action and be for a blessing. 

Advisory Update:

Sixth Grade: Students focused on the importance of time management and had an opportunity to discuss how their transition to middle school was going.

Seventh Grade:  At Frost Valley our students were able to implement the teamwork and communication skills we learned in Advisory.

Eighth Grade: Students learned interviewing skills and were able to see firsthand some dos and don’t of interviewing through live demonstrations.