This Shabbat we conclude Genesis with the reading of Vayechi. As each book of the Torah is completed the congregation repeats a formula, Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek, “Be strong, be strong and let us strengthen each other!” Ask ten Jews its meaning and, as the joke goes about Jewish opinions in general, you’ll get eleven opinions.
Some say that each of the five books of the Torah can strengthen us but not all in the same way. You might be spiritually strengthened by one story, one mitzvah, one character; your neighbor by another story, another mitzvah, another character. Put them all together and we’re mutually strengthened for we can see the impact of each on every one of us.
And then there are those who relate to the following story written by a contemporary colleague:
Not long ago, a man walked into my study and told me his wife had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. The doctors did not yet know the extent of it: whether it was encapsulated or had metastasized, whether it was operable or not. He has four children of varying ages, who are only beginning to absorb the severity of the news. He knows that somehow; he is going to need to be strong for his wife and for them. But how can he be strong, he asks me, when he is so afraid?
The rabbi went on to say:
I can try to garner my strength that hopefully will add to your strength knowing that together we’ll walk this journey wherever it takes us.
That’s a value-laden message of Judaism. “Life is With People,” is the title of a wonderful volume about the Eastern European shtetl, but it is a truism in general especially for us. Jews cannot exist on a desert island; we need community. Some say chazak refers to the Jewish people - individually and collectively - reminding each other. “I must be strong, You must be strong, and together our strength will sustain us.” You and I - WE - need each other to face the good and the bad, to confront what each day might bring. And so much of that which strengthens us are those stories, mitzvot and characters contained in Torah.