Getting Better

I recently reconnected with an out-of-town friend. “How are you?” I asked. “I’m good, Rabbi. All my problems today are manageable problems.” Nice perspective, I thought. Recognizing the difference between the manageable and unmanageable ones is probably good for us. But what about problems that can never be solved? How do we coexist with them?

To clarify how, this week’s portion of Torah arrives just in time. It instructs us on how to provide for the impovershed. “There shall be no needy in your midst” is promised. Then, by contrast, seven verses later we read, “There shall never cease to be neediness in your land” (Deut 15:4,11). First, we’re taught the problem can and will be solved. Then, our conduct depends on it never getting solved. 

For me, this provides a schooling in how to side-step despair. How to focus on bettering a reality rather than getting mired in the struggle of solving it. For example, promoting more prosperity for more people, in more places, more of the time, is different from promising peace or the end of poverty. The former promotes righteousness, while the latter can generate self-righteousness. 

In recent decades, journalists and professors have shifted their broader aim. They’re less interested in understanding the world and more about fixing it. To be clear, advocacy is an important discipline. But not so self-important that it weakens learning or eclipses investigation.  

We should crave solutions to problems. But when they aren’t unavailable, progress always is. “You shall surely open your hand to the needy” is our call (Deut. 15:8). Our summons. 

A solution-mode is good at breakthroughs. But less good at managing reversals.

There’s a legend that every blade of grass has an angel bending over it, whispering: “Grow. Grow.” What’s true for nature, abides for human nature. A bettering-you makes for a better you.