Last week, I began addressing one of the great challenges of our time: how do we live in the world without allowing the world to define us? How do we resist the pull of society when its values run contrary to our own, without slowly surrendering the identity that has sustained us for generations? And when the winds of hatred begin to swirl around us, as they have so many times throughout our history, how do we remain strong without bending until we break?
The answer lies in this week's Torah portion, Shoftim, in one word: roots.
In discussing the laws of war, the Torah tells us, "Ki ha'adam etz hasadeh" "for man is like a tree of the field." A tree can appear strong because of what we see above the ground: its trunk, its branches, its height. But its true strength lies beneath the surface; the deeper and stronger its roots, the more it can withstand. When the winds come, a tree with shallow roots may look impressive, but it is vulnerable. A tree with deep roots can sway and bend, yet remain firmly planted.
The same is true of us. Our strength does not come from isolating ourselves from every wind that blows around us. It comes from knowing where we are rooted. Our roots are Torah and mitzvot. They are Shabbat, tefillah, Torah study, acts of chesed, and the values that have shaped Jewish life for thousands of years. Every mitzvah pushes those roots a little deeper. Every moment of Torah strengthens our connection to something greater and more enduring than the pressures of the moment.
Even if you're not yet familiar with Torah and Mitzvot, don't stress because you've already got deep roots connecting you to Avraham and Sarah, to Moshe and Miriam, and to generations of Jews who faced storms far more powerful than anything we can imagine and nevertheless remained standing. They carried their identity through exile, persecution, uncertainty, and hatred because they knew who they were and where they came from. We draw strength from those same roots. The world around us may storm, society may pressure us to bend, and hatred may try to shake our confidence, but a Jew deeply rooted in Torah, mitzvot, and the strength of our ancestors stands stable and secure.
So this week, let us each ask ourselves a simple question: How deep are my roots? And then let us do something to deepen them. Learn a little more Torah. Take on one mitzvah with greater care. Make Shabbat more meaningful. Strengthen a Jewish practice in your home and share it with your children. Connect more deeply to our people and our past. We cannot control the strength or direction of the winds around us. But we can control how deeply we plant our roots. And when our roots run deep, we will have the strength not merely to survive the storm, but to stand tall through it as a beacon light to the whole world.