{"id":69527,"date":"2022-09-16T15:09:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T20:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=69527"},"modified":"2022-09-16T15:09:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T20:09:14","slug":"off-the-pulpit-brokenness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-brokenness\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: Brokenness"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

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That we are more whole when broken is the paradox embodied in the Kotzker\u2019s famous phrase that the only whole heart is a broken one. A well lived life is one in which we grow from pain, for the ills of existence are inseparable from its lessons. To live unscathed is to forfeit life\u2019s richness for a counterfeit safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife breaks all of us,\u201d Hemingway famously said, \u201cand most of us are strong in the broken places.\u201d The midrash\u2019s wisdom is gentler, and deeper. Sometimes it is from weakness that we reach toward God, and while we may end up stronger, we surely grow wiser and closer to the center of our own souls.<\/p>\n

Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n

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