What is Wisdom? How to Acquire it?

Wisdom. How does one acquire it?

Wisdom. What is it?

Is it clarity? Is it understanding? Is it light?

She wishes that she were wiser. She berates herself for not knowing better, for continuing to make mistakes. She assumes that the way to acquire wisdom is by beating herself up, by breaking herself to pieces.

She cries, “If only I had known yesterday what I know today, I would have…I could have…

She feels like she’s in darkness, not light.

I challenge her. Maybe acquisition of wisdom is a process? Part of the process is taking apart, analyzing, seeing what went wrong, getting to the core of what things, people are made of. Yes, that’s a part of it, but the process doesn’t end there. There is so much more to it.

The main part of the process, in my opinion, is not in breaking, but it building anew. In putting things back together and seeing how they fit. Noticing what went right and how to do it again. Building, molding, constructing.

Yesterday was terrible. Everything that I did went wrong. Maybe that’s true or maybe it’s an exaggeration. What can I gain from it? Today can I be wiser? Only if I take all the pieces and use them to grow. Only if I can also find within the terrible day the part that I tried my best to do right.

“Come on Elana, catch them,” I tell myself. “Catch them- my children, my husband, my clients, myself!!! -catch them doing something right and amplify it with light.” This is wisdom at its core. It’s knowing that everyday is a new day and everyday is an opportunity to get wiser. No matter what happened yesterday, today is a new day. A day that requires its own hard work and effort. A new day that can and will shed light.

Speak to Aaron and say to him: "When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the menorah (Bamidbar 8:1)."

What is the menorah? The menorah is light. It’s wisdom, understanding, Divine connection. According to the Or HaChaim the process of cleaning and preparing the menorah lamps meant that Aaron had to take it apart and put it back together every day. The menorah, the source of wisdom and light, was therefore constructed anew each and every day.

Wisdom is knowing that today is a new day and I will, with G-d’s help, grow from it. Wisdom is being able to take apart the pieces of the past with the purpose to learn from them. It’s finding the strength and the tools to concentrate on finding the beauty and good in a person, in a situation. It’s having the clarity to focus and work hard on building a “new” source of light.

May we all be blessed with wisdom and clarity. May we find and use all the tools that we need to build and construct centers of light. May we catch ourselves and those around us doing right.

Shabbat Shalom,

With blessings,

Elana