Va’etchanan: How To Improve Our Adaptability Skills

As days become weeks and weeks turn into months, we are all being compelled to adapt to a new reality, otherwise referred to as the “new normal”.

Change is never easy. We are all creatures of comfort. However, sometimes we have no choice.

In truth, the forces which compel us to adapt to a new reality are divinely engineered. It is G-d telling us, I know you can do better.

As Darwin said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, it is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Our challenge today is, how do we improve our adaptability skills?

The Jewish people are perhaps the greatest example in history of learning to adapt to new conditions.

We have not only survived more change and disruption than any other people. We have also been the agents in helping society adapt to its new challenges.

Our secret lies in the fact that our core identity is embedded in a reality which transcends change.

This identity manifests itself in the timeless values and ideals which have inspired Jewish life throughout the ages.

It is precisely because of these values that we are able to adapt to new conditions. We have been gifted with a moral compass which helps us navigate and maintain our balance, only because we have clarity of purpose and direction.

Our primary focus today must therefore be to recalibrate our priorities and lifestyle against those timeless values. We can only do this by spending more time in studying the rich wellsprings which have given us guidance and inspiration during trying times.

Darwin was only half right. Yes it is true that “it is the one that is the most adaptable to change,” who survives. However, it is only because we are embedded in a reality which transcends change, which enables us to be adaptable.