#TransformationTuesday

This guy goes through a major transformation in perek gimmel. He starts off angry and says that everything that happens is arbitrary. There is chaos and nothing he has done could have caused all of this destruction and pain. He then realizes that G-d did to him on purpose. He is the target. After saying G-d's name, he begins to realize that it is possible for him to mend his relationship with G-d. After all, if the bad stuff comes from G-d, the good stuff must come from Him too. He realizes that G-d is not spiteful and He is just punishing him for sinning. Then, all of a sudden, we're looking at the exact same situation that he was in in the beginning of the perek. Before, he concluded that it was all arbitrary and there might not even be a G-d. Now, he looks at everything and tells the people to do Teshuva. He begs G-d to be remorseful and does everything he can to have a relationship with G-d. What happened? How did this whole transformation take place? Well, the way I see it, there were two main factors that had a huge affect on the Gever's transformation.

The first is community. In the first 39 pasukim, the Gever only said "I." He was self-absorbed and saw everything from his point of view. Then, in pasuk 40, he makes a change. He starts saying "we" and "us." He rejoins the community and asks them to look inside themselves, at their actions, and come back to G-d. We see how much power the community has. G-d made a Brit with all of Bnei Yisrael and said that we would never be obliterated. The community has the ability to speak to G-d in a way that the individual cannot. When the Jewish community is united, amazing things can happen. Back then it might have been asking G-d to be remorseful and stop the Hester Panim. Today, we see the Jewish community do incredible things all the time. We band together when a Jewish teenager goes missing in Boston, we all come together to raise money for Jews in need all over the world, and when someone is sick in a community, everyone works together to take care of them and make sure that they have everything they need. Community is a very powerful thing and in the Gever's case, it was a huge component in his transformation.

The second factor is his perspective on the situation. Of course we're talking about perspective--this is a Mrs. Perl class. Anyway, when the Gever first looked at the situation back in the first 11 pasukim, all he could see was chaos and arbitrary punishments. Now he has remembered G-d and recognizes that G-d brings the good to the world as well as the bad. He has accepted responsibility for his sins and sees that his enemies are the ones attacking him and G-d is only punishing him for his sins (as He said he would in Devarim). He is still in the same situation in pasuk 48. There is still pain and destruction and chaos. However, his perspective on the situation has changed. He now sees that this is all a result of his sins. It is still possible for his relationship with G-d to be fixed. He begins to cry out to G-d and ask Him to be merciful even though they deserve these punishments. He asks G-d to stop the Hester Panim and have a relationship with him. This is all a result of his change in perspective--he is now able to see the situation clearly and understands why this is all happening and realizes that he must mend his relationship with G-d.