A time to appreciate what we have

“HOW privileged are so many of us that during a global pandemic, we can just stay at home reading, working, still being educated and talking to our loved ones with little worries and a fridge stocked with food?”

This was one of the catchier memes I read this week depicting the global crisis which, were we living in an underdeveloped country or in a pre-technology era, would have been utterly devastating.

This does not mean for a moment that the challenges people are currently experiencing should be played down. They are enormous.

Many Australians have died from this disease, millions of Australians have lost their jobs and people’s mental health has and will continue to be adversely affected by the daily challenges of social distancing which for many may result in becoming socially isolated.

But we also live in a country whose government is capable of investing hundreds of billions of dollars of stimulus relief and job keeping measures to keep as many people afloat as possible (notwithstanding it will have to be paid back one day) and a health care system and online mental health resources to help people through these challenging times.

We do live in a blessed country.

Indeed, one of the major upshots of the new normal is the extent to which we no longer take simple things for granted – hugging our grandchildren, going out with family and friends, enjoying a cuppa in our favourite café, or just a simple handshake.

After this pandemic is over (please God may it happen quickly) we may never look at these daily experiences in the same way.

But why should we need a pandemic to teach us this lesson?

The sobering answer is that we, as human beings, instinctively take things for granted. It is human nature to be ungrateful unless we make a conscious effort not to.

Gratitude isn’t felt automatically. It needs to be inculcated and until and unless we teach ourselves how to be grateful it may take a pandemic to become that teacher.

Fortunately however, Judaism has an excellent mechanism for ingraining in us a sense of gratitude without need for a pandemic – the daily blessings. We are instructed every single morning to recite numerous blessings to express our gratitude for things we may otherwise take for granted. We thank God for waking up in the morning, for being able to see, for our cognitive faculties, for our ability to stand up, for the clothes on our back, the food we eat, the fragrances we smell and even for our ability to go to the toilet.

The Jewish daily blessings found in the beginning of every siddur (prayer book) condition us not to take simple things for granted. They raise our awareness of the good things we possess in life and help us appreciate what we have rather than focus on what we don’t have.

There is a classic story which aptly expresses this theme.

A poor couple with six children lived in a very small one-room house. They were always getting in each other’s way and there was so little space they could hardly breathe.

Finally they couldn’t stand it any longer. The man asked his wife what to do. “Go see the rabbi,” she told him.

The rabbi listened to his dilemma and said, “Do exactly as I tell you and things will get better. Do you promise?”

“I promise,” the poor man said.

“Good,” the rabbi said. “When you get home, take all the animals you own into your house to live with you.”

The poor man was astonished to hear this advice but he went home and took all the farm animals into the tiny one-room house.

The next day the poor man ran back to see the rabbi. “What have you done to me, rabbi?” he cried. “It’s awful. We are so cramped now!”

The rabbi listened and said calmly, “Now go home and take the chickens back outside.”

The poor man did as the rabbi said, but hurried back again the next day.

“The chickens are gone, but rabbi, the goats!” he moaned, “They’re everywhere!”

“Go home and remove the goats,” the rabbi said.

So the poor man went home and took the goats outside. But he ran back again to see the rabbi, crying. “Still the cows are unbearable!”

The rabbi said sweetly, “Go home now and take the cows out of your house”, which the poor man did. The next day he ran back to the rabbi again.

“Dear rabbi,” he said with a big smile on his face, “we have such a good life now. The animals are all out of the house and we’ve got plenty room to spare! What a joy!”

A beautiful story indeed but let us all take its message to heart and utilise these challenging times to improve our sense of gratitude. And I would warmly encourage anyone reading this piece to consider reciting the morning blessings each day to help us continue appreciating the simple things in life even after this pandemic is gone.

Rabbi Yaakov Glasman is senior rabbi of St Kilda Hebrew Congregation.