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This week I felt again the “chronic crisis” that I spoke about on Yom Kippur. There are so many different things happening at once. The living Israeli hostages were released, bringing joy and relief, but the bodies of many others are still captive. Hamas is reasserting its power with continued violence against Gazans. Another of the president’s perceived enemies has been indicted. Our courts wrestle with the deployment of troops on U.S. soil and with voting rights. There are talks with Ukraine and Russia. There are floods in western Alaska. The government shutdown enters another week. And so much more.

This feeling of unkempt chaos mirrors our Torah portion as we begin reading the Book of Genesis this Shabbat. We are told that the world begins tohu va’vohu, sometimes translated as “unformed and void,” or “welter and waste.” It’s a mess. The writer Sarah Tuttle-Singer observes that “God doesn’t make light out of nothing — God summons it out of chaos. The first act of creation isn’t invention, it’s discernment. It’s seeing what is possible in the swirl” of everything all at once.

When everything in the “chronic crisis” feels overwhelming, we can respond with discernment. We can pull on one thread, focus on one topic, draw out one way to move forward, and feel like we’ve created a small moment of not-chaos. As I mentioned on Yom Kippur, that might be doing something to take care of ourselves, or finding a way to be involved in our community or congregation, or engaging in a small act that makes a difference in the bigger world. When you feel that sense of “chronic crisis,” gaze into the tohu va’vohu and pick one way to move forward that feels right for you right now.

We don’t have to deal with everything all at once. And we don’t have to do everything all at once. After all, creation took 6 days of work before God reached the perfection of Shabbat rest! But from the swirling chaos, when it all feels overwhelming, we can find moments to make a difference for ourselves, our community, and society as a whole. And when we do, bit by bit, act by act, step by step, we contribute to the creation of the world as we want it to be.