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Stephen Daniel Arnoff
Author, Teacher, and Community Leader

A Change Is Gonna Come

A friend sent me Rolling Stone‘s 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time this morning. Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” lands at number one. Cooke was inspired by hearing Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and being banned from a Louisiana hotel for being Black. One of the most respected singers of his era, Cooke created a masterpiece of longing, protest, and hope with an unforgettable melody and message.

Songs like “A Change Is Gonna Come” never grow old because there’s always something to protest, always a change that has tarried but we hope is coming. We often think we live in unusual or even unprecedented times: Our political landscape is divisive, military conflicts rage, nature is unsettled, and headlines scream for change. Everyone seems to be wanting something other than what they have. But such restlessness is a feature, not a bug, of modern life, and may in fact be core to what it means to be human.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus would have written great pop songs. “The only constant in life is change,” he mused, one of many stellar aphorisms in his teachings. Heraclitus tells us, change is always coming. No matter your politics or beliefs, don’t get too comfortable.

My favorite playlists combine rock, ancient thinkers, and a touch of Jewish text. I turned to the word for “change” in modern Hebrew — shinui. In the three-letter root system of Hebrew, shinui is derived from the Hebrew letters shin-nun-hey.

Now, linguists can correct me, but it seems the root for “change” is the same as for the word “shonay,” which means “changed” as an adjective and “he learns” as a verb. It is also the source for the name of the Mishnah with a different vocalization. Compiled nearly two thousand years ago, the Mishnah was the first attempt at an exhaustive compendium of Jewish law, and it’s still the framework for all traditional Jewish study today. And in traditional study, repetition is key not just for sacred texts but for uncovering the secrets of life.

One who repeats [shonay] what they’ve learned a hundred times can’t be compared to one who repeats it a hundred and one times,” teaches the Babylonian Talmud in Tractate Hagigah 9b.

Three masters — Sam Cooke, Heraclitus, and Hillel — offer similar wisdom, even if they lived thousands of years apart. By paying close attention to what troubles us and hanging in there with life’s ups and downs, we find not a loop but a spiral. We may feel stuck, but this perception is an illusion. Progress is assured by sticking with it, keeping the faith, and knowing all things will eventually have their place. The universe rewards constancy and commitment, and its laws are the same for everyone, no matter who we are or what we believe.

Today, instead of thinking about left or right, or right or wrong, I’m hearing Sam Cooke’s words — a text I’ve studied hundreds, if not thousands, of times — and learning something new:

There’ve been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now, I think I’m able
To carry on

Our greatest skill in building a life of meaning may be the ability to outlast the sense of being stuck and hopeless even as change is slow to meet us. Knowing that a change is gonna come, that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” as taught by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helps us see our troubles in a new, hopeful light so that we can not only carry on, but be ready for what’s ahead.

About the Author
Dr. Stephen Daniel Arnoff is the CEO of the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center and author of the book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan.
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