If you have not checked your calendar… the Rosh Hashanah is fast approaching! Dig out the brisket recipe, practice your round challah braiding skills, make the honey cake with the kids, it is time to welcome a brand new year! My favorite ritual of Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich. I take my day old bread down to the river and tear it into little pieces. Those pieces represent all of the things I would like to let go of from this past year. I cast those pieces into the water and watch as they float away. In shul, we come together as a community and admit our wrongdoings as individuals and as a people; we ask our community, our friends, families and God to forgive us. Our fixed prayers do not necessarily guide us to ask for forgiveness from ourselves. Tashlich is the final step of the prayers we have been sending and singing in synagogue. This ritual gives us a physical outlet to let go of the things that we have done wrong to ourselves and to others. When we take a breath and stretch … [Read more...]
I have a smile on my face.
Why? Because I just received a note from a wonderful local Jewish family who just joined Temple Emanu-El. “Hi Rabbi! We have received lovely and generous emails and phone messages from many folks at Temple Emanu-El, thank you thank you all so much for welcoming us, very much looking forward to seeing and meeting and getting to know each of you!! My husband had a side conversation at work with someone, and found out that they also belong to Temple Emanu-El. We are excited about all the new and terrific things happening, have a good week!” To their delight, since they joined TE last week, they have discovered that they have many friends who are already members here. Their motivation for joining us as new members was so that they could live a deeper, more beautiful, and more meaningful life through their Judaism. Temple Emanu-El is their avenue, and we are thrilled to welcome them! As you know, new members are vitally important to the energy and health of our … [Read more...]
The Most Important Lesson We Learn in School
As school begins, excitement and anxiety build for all the wonderful surprises and challenges that we will meet in the coming year. We might be excited to see our friends again, or we might be worried about the new subjects we will uncover. However, there is one basic rule that we need to remember in school and in life: listen. That’s it. All we need to do in life is listen. True listening isn’t doing our best sponge impression and soaking up everything that’s around us. No, true listening is taking in information and wrestling with what we discover. This week we read parashat Eikev, a Torah portion where we are reminded what happens to those who listen to God. The Israelites are told that they belong to an eternal covenant with God, one that requires listening (read: caring for) the Earth and all the creatures that live upon it. Moses explains to the Israelites that true listening is an act of love done with our whole heart, mind, and being. For the student, the husband, the … [Read more...]
The Sublime, Holy Beauty of Music
Music has always been at the heart of Judaism in story, history and prayer. In Bereshit, God sings the world into being, and in Shemot, we sing ourselves to freedom as we wade through the red sea. In the book of Dvarim, Moses offered his dying words to Israel in the form of song. Abraham Joshua Heschel describes song as “the most intimate expression of man.” The Hassidic movement in Judaism elevates the practice of singing wordless melodies, niggunim, as the ultimate method of attaining true prayer. As Rabbi Reuven Hammer writes, “what words can adequately express our prayers to God? What words [alone] can truly capture the depths of our emotions at times of grief or of overwhelming joy?” The melodies of our prayers serve as a vehicle towards d’veikut, the feeling of closeness, or oneness with something greater. The melodies hold up our words. Melody and music become the conduit for our souls. When we come together as a community, our prayers become offerings to each other, and … [Read more...]
Exploring the Silent Space
We are, in part, defined by the space around us. Who we are not… what we are not…where we are not. In that space is often unarticulated possibility. Silence. Last night I returned from a private, three day silent retreat hosted at a Catholic monastery in Conyers. The Monastery of the Holy Spirit is an active haven for Trappist monks, who vow to live a life of beautiful simplicity, much of which is done through silence. For me, the Abbey provided a sparse but functional room, simple vegetarian food, and lots of space for venerated silence. I’ve spoken before about the qualities of silence, each type being different…and in each of those types of silence I can recognize subtleties of my own spiritual character. After all, it is the space between the piano notes that make the music sing, and it is the space around each letter in Torah that holds a world of potential. So too, the silence around each one of us. I would thank you, my beloved congregation, for … [Read more...]
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