{"id":65295,"date":"2022-01-07T13:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=65295"},"modified":"2022-01-07T13:00:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T18:00:53","slug":"off-the-pulpit-when-nothing-goes-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-when-nothing-goes-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: When Nothing Goes Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-55374 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-144x144.jpg 144w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-55374 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WOLPE-e1592568030579-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>Every age brings its difficulties. It is true that with all the advantages of our age, it can still seem as if everything is going wrong.&nbsp;It may or may not help to know that this is not a new sentiment. From the beginning of time people sat themselves by the fireside and said, \u201cAbsolutely nothing worked for me today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If nothing is going your way, the least others can do is offer sympathy and company.&nbsp;You aren\u2019t alone: Abraham Ibn Ezra, famed biblical commentator and poet from 12th century Spain, lamented:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>If I made shrouds<\/em><br \/>\n<em>No one would ever die.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>If I sold lamps<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The sun would shine all night long<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We all have those times when the world seems magically arrayed against us. Don\u2019t despair. Keep at it. After all, Ibn Ezra didn\u2019t make shrouds or lamps, but poems \u2013 and they\u2019ve lasted for centuries.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Off%20the%20Pulpit%3A%20When%20Nothing%20Goes%20Right\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[8790,8795,8788,608],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65296,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65295\/revisions\/65296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}