Rabbi Krygier Lapides | Thursday, April 4, 2024
The world lost a mensch and a scholar when Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerskiz”l passed away a few years ago. Rabbi Twerski would tell a story about change and adversity using lobsters as his example.
To paraphrase Rabbi Twerski: the lobster is a soft, mushy animal that lives inside a very rigid shell that cannot expand. As the lobster grows and changes, the shell becomes confining and the lobster feels pressured and uncomfortable. To alleviate the discomfort, the lobster casts off the shell and grows a new one. Eventually, that shell, too, becomes uncomfortable as the lobster grows and this pattern is repeated throughout its life.
We can learn from the lobster, says Rabbi Twerski, because the stimulus for the lobster to be able to grow is discomfort. For the lobster and for us, times of stress are signals for growth. Rabbi Twerski continues: if we use adversity properly, we can grow through adversity.
Pesach is coming and with it comes the story about G-d’s miracles, our freedom from slavery, and escape across the sea. This thrilling story is in sharp contrast to the heartbreak we feel as this war wages on, our hostages are still not home, our allies alternately support and ghost us, and the future is uncertain and scary.
In some ways, the Pesach we celebrated last year, before the war, feels like ages ago and in other ways, it feels like just yesterday. It may seem like our day-to-day lives are pretty much the same, but the reality is that whether or not our routine has changed, we have changed. There is an expression that no one steps in the same river twice; everything is always undergoing a consistent process of transformation, including us.
Our experiences this past year have educated us, humbled us, challenged us, and continue to do so every day. This war and the fall-out emergence of antisemitism is testing our strength, our patience, our beliefs, and our values. Like the lobster, we have felt uncomfortable numerous times, we have shed our shell and have evolved into different people than we were a year ago.
During this season of Pesach, as we tell the same story that has been told for countless generations L’dor Va’dor, may we gift one another with kindness, patience, faith, and courage as we shed our shell and emerge from Mitzrayim in the safety of Hashem’s sheltering presence. Yes, we wander in the desert but if we stick together, we are never alone.
From my family to yours, Chag Pesach Kusher V’Sameach!