Nitpicking - Some Thoughts on Despair

"Lakol zman va'et tahat hashamayim" - "There is a time for everything under the heavens," says King Solomon. I always like to find exceptions to a rule, and I have to admit that it would be no small boost to my ego to show that the smartest man who ever lived was wrong.

So I ask: Does this include despair? What possible situation could there be in which it would be right to despair? If we are to believe that God watches over us and guides our lives, despair would be a no-confidence vote in God. Despair leads to inaction, a hopelessness that one could ever change the present situation. But we are meant to act - otherwise why are we here on this earth?

I think that perhaps the answer lies in the fact that despair is itself a combination of two emotions: sadness and resignation, each of which are appropriate at times in and of themselves. Certainly we should be sad when we hear or see injustice and pain. Resignation is also important at times. Specifically, a person should resign himself to the ideas inherent in the morals passed down to us by the Rabbis. To accept that one should work for God's ends and not his own takes a certain amount resignation. It seems that this act of surrender, though it makes eminent sense, is rarely if ever achieved. Nonetheless, it is valid and even important. After all, this world is of God's making, not our own. He gives us the opportunity to work alongside Him in its perfection, but to think that one could ever have an everlasting impact on the world if God did not desire it is plainly erroneous.

So, surprise, surprise, King Solomon was right, and my question was faulty. But the point remains. Despair is not an option. It is only possible for a person to despair because he does not posses a full and complete understanding of God's plans and goals. If he did, he would see that things are quite in order, and that the scene is ready for him to take the next steps that God has laid out for him.