“If you want to change the world, start by making your bed.” This is how Retired Admiral William McRaven began his famous address and subsequent book. The logic is simple: start your day with a task completed. Life is inherently difficult and full of unpredictable challenges, but as the Admiral notes, “Sometimes the simple act of making your bed can give you the lift you need to start your day.”

We have experienced another unsettling week in Israel. Once again, we find ourselves under attack. On Saturday morning, as I was preparing to head to the synagogue to hear the special Torah reading of Parshat Zachor—the commandment to remember Amalek—the siren went off. I am fortunate to have a Mamad (safe room) in my apartment. Once the “all clear” sounded, I grabbed my phone—a decision I made for pikuach nefesh (saving a life) given the tenuous and frightening situation.

The synagogue was packed with men and women who had come to hear Zachor. Soon after the reading was completed, my phone rang. It was my son; he was headed north for yet another round of miluim (reserve duty) and needed to pick up a few things. It felt like déjà vu. One of my sons was seriously wounded in Lebanon a year ago, and now another was heading back to the same front. It felt surreal that this was unfolding so close to the Purim holiday.

Within a moment, everything shifted. The relative calm we had “enjoyed” over the past few months evaporated. We were back in lockdown, joined by the rest of the country, enduring sirens in the middle of the night and the cancellation of all Purim plans.

My first instinct was to stay in bed until it was all over—to simply watch TV and wait. But I kept hearing the Admiral’s words: If you want to make a change, start by making your bed. Each morning, even when my instinct was to hide under the covers, I got up, made my bed, and moved forward.

It is now Day 6, and this Shabbat we will read Parshat Ki Tisa. In the portion, the Tablets are shattered, but that isn’t the end of the story. Somehow, the pieces are gathered, and Moses ascends the mountain once more to carve new ones. This is our story. We may fall, but we always get up and start over—stronger and more resilient. And it begins with the small, disciplined act of making the bed.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)