Miryam's Space

I was going to talk about wonder today. And so much has happened since I began to write this drash. We’ve been shaken to our very core. In a prayer vigil on Wednesday night in response to the attack on the Capitol, R’ David Ingbur recalled the Midrash in which Avraham sees palace on fire,  a birah doleket, and Avraham was able to see wonder, and know G!d was there. But that fire was destructive. There’s a different kind of fire in the parashah, Shemot. Moses is shepherding his father in law’s flock in the wilderness, and he comes to the mountain of G!d. (Aren’t all mountains in the wilderness God’s?) Then These amazing words Vayera malach Adonai alav b’labat eish mitoch ha-sneh. And an angel of G!d was seen by him (Moshe) in the heart of fire in the midst of the thorn bush. And he saw –the word for vision Ra-ah is repeated so many times, a humble thorn bush, not an impressive sight, as a wonder! It’s leaves were burning, but not being eaten up. As our capital, our democracy were burning, they were not destroyed.  And Moshe said “I must turn aside asurah na, v’ereh AND SEE et ha-mareh hagadol hazeh,  and see this great VISION.  Rabbi David ended Wednesday night’s service with Esa einai, I will lift my eyes to the mountains.

And I imagine someone gently with lifting my chin in their hand so my eyes can be lifted to hope and wonder

I lost a friend to cancer this week. I heard those same words at her funeral.

How can we, in these circumstances, lift our eyes, turn aside, and see wonder?

For me, words and music of praise help me wake up each morning adding layers of meaning, helps me to re-cognize the wonder.

In an interview in On Being this week, In answer of what it means to be human, Mary Katherine Bateson (daughter of Margaret Mead) answered “We live in a time of real urgency where we have to mine the rich words of our tradition.. We have to learn to use the word “we” to include all life on earth, and shape everything we do to protect it”  All life. All people, able and disabled, brown and white, male and female, and the more than human world as well.

As Moshe lived in a time of urgency.  He was a runaway dis-graced Prince of Egypt, reduced to shepherding for a Midanite Priest. And he would wander into the wilderness, and open his eyes because of a sense of wonder, would experience God, perhaps for the first time in his life, and find his life’s mission and purpose, and save us all. “And in his heart their burned a flame”  Wonder can ignite a flame in our hearts,  wake us up to our purpose, and lift our eyes. How can we jibe the wonder with the brokenness?

The kabbalists of the sixteenth century were refugees of the Spanish Inquisition, and knew well of brokenness. They had a brilliant answer. It’s all about creation, they said, where in a universe filled with G!d’s light, G!d contracted to make room for creation, storing the light in vessels. But the light was too powerful for the vessels and creation shattered into tiny shards, fragments that became corporeal existence. A residue of G!d’s light remains in each fragment Our mission is to re-gognize the holiness in the fragments, and reconnect the fragments as puzzle pieces, into wholeness, sh’lemut, peace. I share this poem of peace by student Rabbi Heather Paul that I have put to melody, and speaks so powerfully. (I hope to add a recording soon.)

God, You scattered the divine sparks 

so that we may find them in each other,

but sometimes, we forget to look. 

We are Your glistening fragments,

Your shards, Your stars. 

We stand here before you, 

ready to gather the sparks, 

ready to illuminate the world

(like One holy campfire.) 

Sim Shalom tovah u’vrachah, Peace, blessed and lovely, when will we be ready?,

We may be scattered, shattered

but we will glow together, grow together,

we will see each other’s shine

and maybe then, dear God,

we will finally be ready

for peace. 

Barukh Atah Adonai, ha-mevarech et kol ha’olam b’shalom 
Blessed are You, God, who illuminates the world with peace.