Bs”d
A Thought for Match Day 5785
Dear friends,
Tamar and I wish that you match in the absolute best program where you will grow amongst colleagues who truly appreciate you, and who you truly respect and can learn from.
Today on match Day you express a lesson that in some ways represents an entirely new aspect of your training and growth as a doctor.
Counterintuitively, if I were to sum it up into one word, that would be, “stubborn”.
Yes, stubborn. However, not the stubbornness that you've just spent four years replacing with open-mindedness, empathy and education.
The leap that you are taking today is the result of an inner depth that runs so strong it can only be described as stubbornness.
In the consummate Jewish prayer, the Shema, we describe a meditation that eliminates any logical attack on morality and decency.
We state unequivocally that G‑d is one. With this, we incorporate the entire ninety-billion light-year universe, and every molecule within it, into the scope of a single vision.
This perspective instantly renders any temptation meaningless, any challenge laughable, and every achievement divine.
In the last four years you've studied the intricate ins and outs of each fiber of our being, the scope and detail of which make it impossible to be impressed by any challenge to our overall mission; the opportunity and the responsibility of being a part of the beauty that G‑d placed in this world.
However, recently we've come across a challenge that does bleed through. The Torah describes a unique opposition that was unaffected by any of the intuitive antidotes.
After leaving Egypt, include splitting of the Sea and the revelation of G‑d’s very self at Mount Sinai, the nation of Amalek, impervious to any inspiration, simply went on the attack.
This illogical animosity has plagued us throughout history. It defied King Saul's intellectual approach, and it stuck it out through the attacks in the story Purim, throughout history – and today.
In a hospital setting we are faced with this much more often than we’d like.
Administrators who somehow overlook our dedication, patients who complain about frivolities after having been cared for night and day. Or perhaps our own ‘Amalek’. A feeling of how, despite the monumental achievements I make every day, I still don’t feel the energy and joy to get out of bed and continue.
So, what is the response? What was different about King Saul’s approach that failed to uproot this enemy, and the sensitivities which only responded to the antibiotic named King David?
In the second chapter of the Shema prayer we are introduced to a different, non-intellectual, approach - the one you are approaching with today on match day - humble servitude.
An attitude of “I'm not here because of the comfortable chairs in the hospital that I interviewed at, nor because of its water fountains, I'm here to serve; tell me where I'm needed most”.
On the high holidays we approach G‑d in prayer “either as a child or as a servant”. What could the approach of a servant have that could possibly be more devoted than that of a child?
Ultimately a child feels personally invested in, and benefits from, the parent/child relationship.
The servant is not personally happy because they enjoy the work. The Joy of the servant is a singular, humble emotion: fulfillment. A joy and a satisfaction that I helped YOU. That YOU are happy.
As you hold the envelope with the selfless ‘stubborn’ commitment that you are ready to serve wherever you are needed, hold on to that feeling.
This exuberance of being lifted up in the feeling that G‑d is happy, that the patient is happy, that the world is a better, brighter and warmer place because of me, might be the best medication prescribed.
With warm wishes and bated breath.
Yours always,
Rabbi Zalman and Tamar
