It is hard to recall when we have lived in such chaotic times, seemingly everywhere around us and seemingly endless in duration and in new iterations. Even the ceasefire in Gaza, welcomed by most, is hated by a few, declared to be both a great victory and a terrible defeat by each side with ripples that will go on for generations. Our political systems everywhere are in chaos, with the language of hate and division being the dominant themes of the day/the year/the decade.

But this is exactly where and when we desperately need to turn to the core teachings of our religions. Our first story in the Torah, our creation story, describes how chaos is the natural order of things, and that the very first act was to create order out of chaos. Every act since, throughout the Torah, has that singular purpose – to create order out of chaos. The author(s) of the Torah understood that they were writing a moral compass or an ethical code that had to stand above what nations or kings or dictators or even parliaments or congresses could dictate as a way of life.  As a human species, we desperately needed something more than “wear seatbelts” or “don’t drink and drive” laws to create communities that would work.

Religions started up everywhere for the same reason: We needed and need our own higher level “legislation” that teaches about love and charitable acts, kindness to strangers (for we were once strangers ourselves), and paths toward personal growth and sustainable communities and a sustainable world. Without these, we would never have succeeded as human civilization. Such is the power of the chaos that has resided within us individually and as a species, and as we see today, still resides strongly within us.

Our great rabbis once wrote “Talmud Torah k’neged ku’lam” – the study of Torah has to rise above everything else. This isn’t classroom study, but about all of us turning to our core religious teachings to find our path as human beings. That teaching has always been our only path ahead for all of us. It has to come first.

Shabbat shalom (from Mexico),

Rabbi Allan