Why JEWS should NEVER give-up HOPE

one of my favorite adages quoted elegantly by rabert Jonathan saxs the Jewish people are not a people of probability we're a people of possibility we need to have hope we have to remember that there always is hope we have God in our side and I'd like to share with you three biblical stories that remind us that we need to have hope even in the most strenuous and difficult of situations Story number one the story of KH the mother of shmu KH was Barren she had no children she was in a lot of pain all the other ladies were having children she felt lonely she felt isolated what is my purpose in life what's going on here she went up to the mishan to the Tabernacle in Shilo she went into the mishan and she started pouring her heart out to God she started whispering to God the Coen God a came to her and says Hana what are you doing you're drunk she was accused of being drunk she looked she looked ridiculous she says I'm not drunk I'm pouring my heart out to God and I'm praying for a child and she prays that number one God give her a child number two God give her a righteous child that she's going to dedicate to God and sure enough she gave birth to the famous prophet shmoel Samuel now just take a look at the story for a second she prayed for something that made no sense scientifically it didn't seem like she was having children it wasn't in the Stars she even prayed for something that made no sense spiritually she prayed for a righteous child you don't get to do that raise your kid properly and hopefully they'll be righteous you don't get to put it on God you got to do it yet she was hopeful her prayers came from a very very deep place in fact many of the laws traditions and customs of prayer that we Implement today are derived from this story of Kan to teach us that we have to be open to the Great possibilities when we pray Story number two the prophet was Ill he was sick he was good friends with yayu with Isaiah God tells yahu Isaiah please go visit and you know you got to visit the ill it's an important Mitzvah yes who comes in Andia says why is God doing this to me why is this happening me now normally when people ask why are good things bad things happening to good people avoid the question it's not our place right we can't justify people's suffering but in this situation um yes yahu guess felt comfortable telling him the truth and he said the truth is you did not engage in procreation you were supposed to and this you know this is what's happening to you he says I I didn't engage in Pro procreation but I had a valid reason I saw through prophetic Vision that my descendants were destined to be evil and I didn't want to bring that into the world yesah who says no no no no no you do your part you bring children into the world you do your best to raise them properly and God does his part you don't get to play God he says okay I'll try to make it up I'll procreate and you know you have a sister that's unmarried how about I'll marry her heah who says no bro you're ill you're sick you're not marrying my sister he says what do you mean we have a tradition that one should never give up on prayer and that if one has even an iron sword at their neck and it seems like it's the last moments they can't stop praying there's still hope there's always hope when we have to believe that there's always hope Story number three aaham ainu Abraham our patriarch discovers God fights for God battles for the truth and and risks his life to share this truth with the world and God says Abraham I'm going to make you into a great powerful Nation you're going to be the father of the Jewish people you're going to enter the land of Israel and Abraham says God that's beautiful I'm honored but one problem I'm 75 years old I have no children God tells Abraham come outside your tent what do you see up above he says I see the stars your children are going to be as numerous as the stars now commentaries ask an interesting question Abraham was a smart guy why the analogy it doesn't seem like it's adding anything just tell Abraham you're going to have a lot of children why do you have to say see Abraham there's a lot of stars there's a lot of people you're going to behave a lot of children what's the purpose in that when it comes to a very deep concept and if you're explaining it to you know maybe a child you say see there's a lot of stars that's how many children you're going to have you know you want to give them a concept of of how you know big numbers shouldn't Abraham just understand that there's going to be a lot of children so here's what commentaries explain the word that the Torah uses is gaze toward the heavens there's different words for gaze you could say look you could say see you could say gaze you could say Gander there's different words for get for looking the term Hab which means to gaze commentaries explain anytime that word appears in the Bible it canotes looking top down you're not looking at somebody you're not looking up to somebody you're looking down from above look at the heavens look at the stars from a place of above them look from above the Stars you are above the Stars maybe it's not in the stars for you to have children maybe it's not in the heavens for you to have children but you Abraham need to look from a higher place and Abraham did and Abraham had children we as Jews have to have hope and we have to raise ourselves above probability and look from a place of possibility that's my story and I'm sticking to it