Yom Kippur, Protect what you love!

We protect most what we love, perhaps only what we love. I saw this sign in Alaska’s Denali Park 

There was once in my life when I was moose Mama.  My oldest daughter was only 2 year old, and we were on a plane to Florida visiting grandma.  And some fellow who was drunk was annoyed that my child’s chair was leaned back reached out his arm over the chair toward her curly locks. I stood up and said  and in a voice that I’m not sure where it came from announced YOU DON’T TOUCH A HAIR ON THAT CHILD’S HEAD. We protect what we love! I would have taken a bullet for my children, like Kevin Costner in the bodyguard

So many in our world are vulnerable and need our protection.   Children who are hungry because of poverty, disease, war and storm. children who are in danger of gun violence,  and the earth herself as a state is besieged, species are becoming extinct at the highest rate in 67 million years, the climate is changing, which  threatens not only the creatures of this gorgeous planet, but the our children and our future.  Inequity and power hunger leads to the tragedy of war.  We are supposed to guard and to serve the earth and protect our children. But if we only protect what we love, how can our hearts be the big enough – what if you don’t have family to love, or worse your family is abusive. And how can we love beyond our own tribe.   Here’s a wacky Idea: we can cultivate love with romance novels and love songs.

Did you know there is such a thing in the Bible? It is called Shir haShirim, the Song of Songs. Academics say it is a mashup of ancient love songs that is at the same time very human, at times erotic  And thousand years has been a powerful expression of the loving Relationship of The Holy One and the Jewish People. We sing it to express our love of the Holy One, and according to Ezra ben Solomon, 13^th century mystic This is “The song which the Holy One …recites daily.” So our tradition is offering an answer to how to cultivate enough love to protect this earth and our children: Love the mysterious, loving creative power of the cosmos, which means to fill heart with love!

If you were to collect popular love songs to mash-up and create a modern song of songs about both human and Divine love, what songs would you include? Song by England Dan & John Ford Coley

Name your price

A ticket to paradise

I can’t stay here any more

I’ve been from shore to shore to shore

If there’s a shortcut I’d have found it

But there’s no easy way around it

Light of the world, shine on me, Love is the answer

Shine on us all, set us free

Love is a theme in our Torah reading today as well

We will read today in Torah הַעִדֹ֨תִי בָכֶ֣ם הַיּוֹם֮ אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת־הָאָ֒רֶץ֒ הַחַיִּ֤ים וְהַמָּ֙וֶת֙ נָתַ֣תִּי לְפָנֶ֔יךָ הַבְּרָכָ֖ה וְהַקְּלָלָ֑ה וּבָֽחַרְתָּ֙ בַּחַיִּ֔ים לְמַ֥עַן תִּֽחְיֶ֖ה אַתָּ֥ה וְזַרְעֶֽךָ׃

I call heaven and earth to witness this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life—that you and your children shall live—

The Spanish medieval Commentator Ibn Ezra explains:

That What is meant by “you and your children may live means” explains that to live is to love. He says!

And the next verse is a teaching to love the Source of Love and Life itself

לְאַֽהֲבָה֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ

The awe we spoke of last night is only half of faith. The other half is Love. Love: the magic in the universe, The energy of support zinging back and forth in the spaces between the parts of things: family members, community members, it’s where G*d is present, in the vibrant spaces between.   

And The Holy One sings a song of love for us: Ahavah Rabba, we are loved by an unending love.  This teaching to love G*d is Echoed in the Shema/ V’ahavta. Empowered by love, we are to love G*d with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our all. The s’fat Emet writes: This raises a difficulty: how is it appropriate to command love? love must be freely given!  Rabbi Kenneth Cohen speaks of those who suffer, and cannot love G*d, He then goes on to say that v’ahavta is not a command, but a future tense. An aspiration, a prophecy,

Is it possible to love G*d NOW in the present tense? Even through our suffering?

The poster child of Grace in the Bible is Job. Job is a righteous guy who loves G*d a lot! He’s also very successful and wealthy. G*d is portrayed in very human terms, and with one unusual trait: the need for human love.

This trait is the reason we were created, say the mystics. The adversary, Satan, exploits this weakness, and says to G*d: “Job only blesses you because you’ve been so good to him. Let me at him and he’ll sing a different song.” And G*d accepts the challenge and permits Satan to do as he wishes, but forbids him to physically harm Job. Satan kills his ten children, and destroys all his wealth.  Job still blesses G*d. So Satan pushes further, let me hurt his body and he’ll curse you.  G*d allows this.  Job’s friends hold on to the view that Job must have done something to deserve this, but Job holds his ground, knowing he’s been a righteous guy.  He curses his own life, but never curses G*d, He only pleads for an answer, a reason. And so G*d appears to Job, and says “where were You Job, when I created the fearless Leviathan of the universe?”  Pulling out the awe card.

As I studied Job, I wondered aloud, is Loving G*d the same as loving life? Job curses his life and the day that he was born, but will not curse G*d.  Perhaps the difference is that to curse G*d is to curse the whole of existence itself, as to love G*d is to love existence itself, in all its messiness, as well as its beauty. To wish, in your suffering, that you had never been born is one thing, but to deny the beauty of children, and flowers and waterfalls and mountains, and goodness: to curse them all, and to wish they never were? That does not seem like an option. L’chaim is the Jewish toast, “to life”!

Rebbe Shlomo Carlebach, who fled Austria as a teen, during the years leading up to the war and the holocaust would occasionally return to Germany and Austria to give concerts.  People asked him “how can you do it, don’’t you hate the Germans and Austrians for what they did?” He would reply “If I had two hearts, I would hate them. Since I only have the one, I choose to fill it with love.”

Suffering only exists in contrast. We know pain because we have known ease, apathy because we have known joy. We experience loss because we knew love, we recognize injustice because we envision a better world. I have no easy answers, but I know that suffering is a part of life, and sometimes from suffering, blessing can even emerge. It can be a crucible, inspiring empathy, forging a better human being.

I, like on in every 5 Americans have a disability. Facing my disability and discomfort and fear that goes along with it has forged within me mindfulness, generosity and empathy.  I do know this: That a heart filled with gratitude and love is a better way to live: For me that’s what it means to love G*d – to fill your heart with love for others, for life, and for creation. Also to discern: Psalm 97 teaches     שנאו רע אהבי יי  That to be a lover of G*d is to hate evil. We cannot control the scary things of the world, but we can have influence over our response. Torah suggests that the most productive, creative response is to love. V’ahavta.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the great 20^th century Israeli mystic and visionary wrote a poem, his version of “song of songs” It describes four levels of song, also can be levels of love.

The first level for some may be the hardest: to love yourself! We are can be  own worst enemies. Try this meditation with me: Imagine that you are light.

Begin with a tiny spark in your heart, with each beat of your heart the light expands, first filling your chest, and then expanding to fill you, and then spilling out of you until All around you  in every corner, etc.. (~Azriel)

You are made of light and love,  Know that you are beautiful. You must be, there is G*d in you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       In spite of the flaws we try to fix during these Holy days.

Once you are able to love yourself, Look at a neighbor or friend nearby. Imagine that light within them,  it is here too! The second level of love is to love the beauty in our community! We sing the Song of our tradition (the letters ‘ישראל’ can be rearranged to form the words שיר א-ל — the Song of God), Let love bind our community, we are more than individuals, more than the sum of our parts.

Now picture in your mind someone                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Who is difficult to love, who is as different from you as can be. Find the same divine light.  The third level is to love all humanity. Imagine sending love out there.

The fourth level of song, the fourth level of love: There is one who rises even higher, uniting with all creatures, with all worlds. Filling the Universe with song;

What if together we could sing all these levels of love together in harmony

Together they are the song of G*d, the song of ultimate love, the song of songs.

And through this widening circle of song and of love, we know what we must do, to protect the ones we love.  Because We only protect what we love, and the time is now.  Choose life and love

Kol Nidre, A time for Awe!

It is possible to turn fear into awe

For most of my life I have had a fear of heights. Perhaps like me, you have found that fears get in the way.  On a trip I was planning several years ago, I really wanted to go zip lining. I began imagining the experience, and somehow, to my delight, I did it! I guess I’m afraid of falling, not heights. My secret is I never once looked down. It was amazing, it felt like flying as I imagined! The beginning of wisdom, says Proverbs, is Yirat HaShem.-  Yirat is an interesting word in Hebrew, the same word meaning two different, yet connected emotions: fear and awe. From Proverbs we learn “The beginning of wisdom is fear and/or awe of the Holy One”. I knew those ropes, harnesses and pulleys were safe, and knowing I was safe I was free to feel the awe! Fear is helpful, preventing us from harming ourselves and doing something really dangerous. Fear of consequences prevents us from unethical behavior. Whether it is fear of legal, karmic, natural or Divine consequences.  The beginning of wisdom is Yirat HaShem.  Some degree of fear is helpful, but too much can paralyze, can limit.

Fear is also a powerful motivator. Political races are won by those that arouse fears in the populace. Fear of people that are different has motivated pogroms. Fear can be the pathway to “The Dark Side” according to the wisdom of Yoda (whose name in Hebrew means “to know”).  But fear can be turned to awe. Take a minute to name something silently that you fear. Picture it. Breathe in and acknowledge the fear. There is likely an excellent reason you are scared of this: remember the beginning of wisdom is fear. Breathe out, and as you do, try to release some of that fear that has a hold on you.  Breathe in and out again harder and imagine yourself giving this fear up to the Heavens. “It’s just too much for me oh Holy One, please, You take it!”

These Holy days are called the Days of Awe, not the Days of Fear. The process of Teshuva, return or Repentance has the power to Return us to the Awe we are born with.

To cultivate a feeling of awe we have done many things tonight: the music, beautiful setting, majestic words of our prayers. Another way to cultivate awe is to remember other times we’ve felt awe in our life. What experiences in your life have left you a feeling of jaw-dropping awe?

This past July NASA released the first images capture by the James Webb telescope. The images were from a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held up in your hand against the night sky. There were thousands of distant galaxies within that tiny piece of sky. The mass of the dense cluster of galaxies acted as a gravitational lens to magnify an even more distant part of the universe.  Light generated by those more distant galaxies, travelling at 186,000 miles per second took 13 billion years to reach our eyes. We are looking at events that happened almost at the dawn of time.  Can you stretch your imagination that far? It is Inspiring just to try

And yet are we too busy to look up at the night sky, the vast Universe and wonder?

Or perhaps your awe-spot is watching nature’s miracles, rainbows, waterfalls, storm clouds. I know a young woman, Dani, she and her husband went backpacking in Ireland this spring, and they came to one town graced by an enormous double bow spanning the valley.  As the entered the town they said to the innkeeper, wow, did you see that amazing rainbow? “Darlin’ we get those every day,” was the reply.

Or perhaps you find awe in the birth of a child, a miraculous event for sure. Also a day’s work for a maternity ward nurse. And then the child grows and hold their head up and smiles, and talks and takes those first wobbly steps. And we get to experience the world anew. Unless we’re too busy:

A child arrived just the other day
Came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay

Learned to walk while I was away
And was talking ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say “I’m gonna be like you, dad”
~Harry Chapin, Cat’s Cradle

Ahhh, to see the world through the eyes of a child.

As young children, we see the world with eyes of wonder, life is wonder-ful.

I find it so sad when that curiosity, that sense of awe and wonder is lost in children. How can we hold on to the wonder, can we consciously cultivate it?

I am fortunate to have raised three of my own children, and to have seen the world through their eyes. As a teacher, I get to share the wonders of nature and of living creatures: of how every heartbeat is a miracle and we are made of stardust, literally. In every moment of our life, there is mystery and magic at the heart of existence.

Science and spirituality can work in synergy to deepen experiences, to live in gratitude and awe at the wonder of each moment. I find inspiration in the magic of relationships in the world: Parts coming together becoming much more than the sum of their individual parts the magic of life.  Life is not a parts list. The difference between life and death is not a missing part, but interactions which stop or go astray. The synergy that is created from no-thing – but rather from the relationships in the spaces between the parts. When there is synergy in a band they create an amazing sound. Loving and supportive relationships create a family, or a synagogue community – that is so much greater than the sum of the parts.  In Jewish tradition the Divine presence herself, Shechinah dwells between 2 or 3 or ten people studying Torah.

The great 20^th centuryRabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel z’l’ urges us to live our lives in wonder, “Our goal, he says “should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”

And Maimonides, the great Scientist, Rationalist, of his time says and I agree, that G*d is simply beyond understanding or compare, (yet haven’t I seen You everywhere before?)  Unknowable, mysterious, we yearn to know the Holy composer of this universe, and in the yearning, to find connection.

So perhaps you just don’t feel amazed. What if you are burnt out, the passion for the things you loved a memory, tired, discouraged, struggling to find meaning. A story: There was a student of a Rebbe who was going through a dry spell. The young man was going through the motions, but could find no inspiration in his prayers or his study.  He approached the Rebbe for help- how can I get my mojo back?. The Rebbe said, I cannot help you, only The Holy One can, and I know a place in the forest where when you ask your question you will get an answer BUT you must pay particular attention to the pathway, or you will be hopelessly lost and not find your way back.  And so the two men went. And the Rebbe accompanied him into deep the forest, and left him alone to commune with G*d and nature.

The student heeded the Rabbi, paying particular attention to the pathway –Soon he became totally absorbed in this task. He began to notice things , the way his body was responding to the exertion, his heartbeat responding, it felt pretty good to be alive!. He began to notice things in the forest as well: the lush mossy ground, the majestic trees the sweet calls of the birds.  When he emerged from the forest he was smiling.  So, nu, asked the Rabbi Did the Holy One answer you.   I forgot to ask, I was so involved with the pathway.   The student was so involved in the NOW of living, he was finally alive in the present moment, being fully present, fully himself. “Then I think you have received an answer my son! Said the Rebbe

Even A. Einstein famously declared we do have a choice in the way you live: to “Live your life as if nothing is a miracle, or everything is a miracle.” The sciences reveal a nearly infinite level of complexity underlying the most seemingly ordinary things, as do the mystics. 

Perhaps our obstacle to living in amazement is that  We think we have seen it all before: it’s just a star, or a rainbow, it’s just another kid on the block. We can even become callous to tragic events, “it  is just another school shooting”-G*d forbid!

According to tradition we already knew all this amazing stuff before we were born.

The Talmud explains that the tiny light accompanies each child from the bundle of energy/ souls of the universe into the womb and that light remains as a protective angel until birth. And with that light, the tiny fetus can see to the ends of the universe, but upon birth the angel taps the child and they forget, we spend our lives relearning all the amazing things we knew. Socratic method in teaching is asking questions to draw out our innate wisdom.

Teshuva is returning to THAT, to childhood wonder.

What are you afraid of?  Only the beginning of wisdom is fear.  It is possible to turn the fear into awe. Perhaps the destination of wisdom is awe. We must access the “Awe” of life,

Teshuvah is returning and turning the fear into awe.

A poem

This witchery of life..

It is more than bones

More than the wrist with its individual pulse,

It is praising,

It is giving

Until the giving feels like receiving ~Mary Oliver

AMAZED

May I stay amazed, for all of my days

In all of the ways   of the world’s turning

Amazed at what I’ve got, and not what I’ve not

All soon forgot  in the world’s turning