This past summer, natural disasters dominated the news: floods ravaged the U.S. Midwest, and wildfires devastated northern California.

Thousands watched their homes and communities disappear. In natural disasters, lives are ravaged along with the countryside.

The question nature forces upon the survivors of catastrophes is simple: what do you have when you have nothing?

The question seems absurd at first. If you’ve lost everything, you truly have nothing. These victims have nothing, and they feel like they’re less than nothing. Indeed, the midrash refers to this sentiment in saying that “poverty is like death.” Faced with extreme loss, it feels as if life isn’t worth living. Job, after suffering the loss of his family and wealth, is urged by his wife to curse God and commit suicide.

But this is wrong. Even when stripped of everything else, people still have their character, with the courage to cope with their circumstances and the dignity to transcend their limitations. Although impoverished and homeless, man still holds the keys to his own heart.

Character is our most precious possession. David, a shepherd boy armed only with a slingshot, can take on Goliath because he has something Goliath lacks: character. David’s weapons are courage and cunning, and these weapons are held in one’s heart, not one’s hands.

Dreams are another priceless possession that can never be destroyed. No matter the situation, man can still pursue his dreams. And when the dispossessed pursue their dreams, they can change the world.

The prophet Zachariah describes the Messiah as poor and riding on a simple donkey. These words remind us that if you want to redeem the world, you need to hold on tight to your dreams, even through poverty and hardship.

Throughout history, many have faced the question of “What do you have when you have nothing?” Some have given up. But those who continue to hold on to their dreams have changed the world.

Earlier this  year, I visited the Museum of the Jewish Heritage in New York. On display was a chupah made in 1946 by the Joint Distribution Committee. This chupah is unique, because it was made for Holocaust survivors who were marrying after surviving the war.

When I saw it, I was overwhelmed by emotion. Isn’t it absurd to try again at life when you have lost everything? But I realized that these couples where not truly bereft. They still had their dignity and their dreams, the most important possessions in the world. And it’s these couples, with nothing else but each other, who went about rebuilding the Jewish world.

These poor survivors, who had nothing in their hands, actually had everything they needed, tucked away in their hearts.