Association Newsletter #52
April 2024
 Nisan 5784

Dear Logotherapy Community,

“The meaning of life is absolute and unconditional because it encompasses also the potential meaning of inevitable suffering.”  
Viktor Frankl

We want to wish you a Happy Passover. 

Since October 7th and progressively as time passes, we ask ourselves, how can we celebrate and be happy? How can we experience joy when we are in war on so many fronts, when sirens sound daily across the country, when the death tolls continue to rise, and when our hostages are still not free? How can we celebrate when there is despair in our souls?

When we are faced with paradoxical challenges that cannot be solved with the limitations of our minds, we ask for an elevated view of reality, a view that can hold multiple opposing forces in one united grasp. We ask for an elevation of consciousness, a climbing of the ladder to the noetic dimension.

“Ultimate meaning necessarily exceeds and surpasses the finite intellectual capacities of man… What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms.
Logos is deeper than logic.” 
Viktor Frankl 

According to Logotherapy, meaning is grasped through the intuitive conscience, beyond logic and the rational mind. Conscience is the heart of the noetic dimension. It is here that the union of opposites is reached. It is with this view that we can carry both the whole and broken Tablets of the Ten Commandments. Maybe it is through our brokenness, that we find our doorway to our true wholeness. We can only begin to understand this paradox if we can experience the world as it was meant to be experienced from the highest possible consciousness, the noetic dimension.

At this time, we are called to turn to the inner forces of the noetic dimension to strengthen our resilience and the hope in our hearts. We have to sharpen our listening to the logo hints being grasped by conscience and remember that according to Frankl in every situation in life, be it the most challenging one, there is meaning. There is no situation which is meaningless.

While in the camps Frankl wrote the following:

“Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival; for a life whose meaning depends upon such a happenstance – as whether one escapes or not – ultimately would not be worth living at all.” 
Viktor Frankl

This is as relevant for us today. However, our perception being limited, we cannot see the whole picture- what Frankl calls: “Ultimate Meaning”– the absolute meaning of life.

“Are you sure that the human world is a terminal point in the evolution of the cosmos? Is it not conceivable that there is still another dimension, a world beyond man’s world; a world in which the question of an ultimate meaning of human suffering would find an answer?” 
Viktor Frankl

So, can we really be free this Passover? Can we really find joy? The answer is an abiding yes, but only if the freedom and joy also encompass within them our bondage and our suffering. When we can embrace the whole of our human reality as one and in one, then and only then can we really be free.

On April 10, 2024, the world witnessed the moon eclipsing the sun, a breathtaking symbol in which light and darkness merged together to create a new reality that is exquisitely beautiful. 

Let us expect the miraculous from within our inner consciousness and newfound realizations. Let us be able to experience the world anew, to witness the meaning behind every facet and moment of our lives. Let us open our eyes to integrated understanding and in that awakening, may the world follow our gaze.

Thank you to Dr. Dida Kimor for the assistance in the translation, editing and writing.

Wishing you a passage to true freedom, filled with grace, love and compassion.

Sincerely,
Elina Shcop,
Chair of the Logotherapy Association in Israel
In the Name of the Board