Dear Kehilá,
This year 5773 is drawing to a close, which means that one should pause and reflect on what one has done this year and how one prepares for the next. The Hasidim used to say, in Yiddish: “Morguen vet zain beser”, which literally translates to “Tomorrow will be better”.
Now, there are two ways to interpret this phrase: a) Tomorrow will be better, b) Something in my tomorrow will be better. Let's analyze these two options.
According to the first explanation, the idea is that God prepares a plan for each day. Every day is a good day, since God, who prepares and establishes "the playing field," so to speak, in both time and space, is essentially good. It's just that, from our limited perspective, we perceive certain things as good and others not so much. Therefore, the phrase is like asking God for a future day in which, despite knowing that God is intrinsically good, we can see that goodness with our own eyes, a tangible and "real" goodness in our physical world.
According to the second explanation, while it is God who prepares the day, as explained earlier, it is one's attitude that determines whether it is good or bad. Similar to the Hasidic idea of trajt gut, vet zain gut (Think well and things will go well), where it's not simply a wish and desire for things to go well, but rather that positive thinking generates positive results; it is absolute trust and surrender to God, the Source of all good, that causes that good to materialize. In other words, it means that it is each person's spiritual work that makes tomorrow better.
In the first case, the matter depends more on God; one reacts after the Divine stimulus, while in the second case there is prior work of personal improvement, an effort to grow internally, and that generates positive reciprocity from God.
It is in this spirit, that of the second explanation, that, a few months before the 10th anniversary of Beit Chabad La Plata, I can say that, definitely, it was one of the most active years since our arrival:
- Weekly classes in Talmud, Hasidut, and Jewish Thought
- Weekly classes with Bar Mitzvah-aged youth
- Weekly classes in primary and secondary school at Shule Bialik
- Full Shabbat and holiday services
- Visits to shops, homes, prisons and nursing homes
- Book presentations and a journalistic discussion about Iran and Argentina
- Berele's haircut
- Jewish cooking workshop in conjunction with AMIA La Plata
- Hanukkah at the Municipality with the Kef orchestra
- Ceremonies at the La Plata cemetery
- Support for flood victims
- Complete renovation of the site www.JabadLaPlata.org.ar, including audio from classes
Even so, as Hasidim, the thought for next year is “Morguen vet zain beser”"(tomorrow will be better), may God, by His own initiative, give us more opportunities to share moments and spaces in community this coming year, and may we, through our own initiative and the sum of the efforts of each member of the community of this city, do even more, so that we may cause God to bless us all in this new year 5774, with health, joy, peace, well-being, happiness and, above all things, the greatest blessing, may the Messiah come now!"