Rabbi Yeheskel Lebovic, Maplewood

Superstorm Sandy has shattered many lives and psyches. I think it also has raised our level of awareness as to what is really important in life.  It has forced us to be grateful for what we have and not take anything, even electric power, for granted.  Part of this awareness is the ability to accept one’s lot, especially in areas in which free choice has no hold, such as natural disasters beyond our control. It is good to remember that even in this area there is a higher Divine Plan at work.   Many great philosophers believe that Divine  Providence is very detailed, guiding not only humans but even animals, plants and inanimate objects, or entities such as wind, down to the most minute details of Creation, all fitting within the gigantic Divine jigsaw puzzle.  The areas in which there is freedom of  choice for man to do and decide as he pleases, according to this way of thinking, apply only when the choices we make relate directly to good or evil: if one chooses do a good action or refrain from a prohibited act, he has chosen good; if he chooses to act otherwise, he has chosen evil. (A full analysis of how to define good and evil is not for this blog). If there were no freedom of choice even in this area, the principle of Divine

reward and punishment would loose its meaning.

This provides a soothing approach which helps one to be contently accepting of whatever situation he finds himself in--even as momentous as Sandy--regardless of whatever bad choices he thinks brought him there, such as deciding to buy a house on the beach front. However, though being “in a pickle” might be an indication that G-d designed it for him to be in that situation currently, nowhere does it state that the duration of the pickling-stage has to drag on and on.  Life is made of stages and cycles and it is up to us to "think good and it will be good and better”, from any given point and forward.  May all New Jerseans come out stronger from this point and onward!