Facing the Crises of Life

The longer you live, the more likely it is that you will have to cope with illness, failure, defeat, rejection, worries, aging, the fear of death, and other miseries. These and many other crises are the dark side of life. You cannot prevent them; you cannot escape them. The Bible warns us not to expect all sunshine and roses in life. Suffering is inseparable from life. As Adam was told, By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread. (Genesis 3.19)

There is a bright side to life. Illness can be devastating but it is not hopeless. Healing is always possible. As Job acknowledges, The hand that wounds is the hand that makes us whole again. (Job 5.18). But the dark side casts its shadow in all of life.

All success is temporary. Nobody can be a winner all the time. Before long you must swallow the bitter pill of failure. Sooner or later we suffer loss, defeat, rejection, and humiliation.

Do our woes outweigh happiness? We age and decline and become unnerved by the fear of death. Nothing is more certain than death. As the Bible says, Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. (Genesis 3.19) Life is to be born and die.

This truth prompts the crises of meaning. Is there higher purpose to life?

Born in Vienna, Austria, Rabbi Joshua O. Haberman was a student at the Rabbinical Seminary and the University of Vienna when the Nazi invasion of 1938 forced him to flee his native country. He continued his studies at the Hebrew Union College and the University of Cincinnati, was ordained as rabbi, and earned a doctorate in modern Jewish theology.

Prior to his election as Senior Rabbi at the Washington Hebrew Congregation in 1969, he served as Interim Rabbi in Mobile, Alabama, Assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth Zion of Buffalo, and Rabbi of Har Sinai Temple in Trenton.

He has taught as an adjunct professor in all Washington area universities, preached at the White House, published four books, and written scholarly papers, including articles in the Encyclopedia Judaica. He is the founding chairman of the Foundation for Jewish Studies, the largest provider of Jewish adult study programs in the Washington area, and Rabbi Emeritus of Washington Hebrew Congregation.