May You Be Inscribed Into the Book of Light
Today is the 14th anniversary of 9/11, another tragedy revisited and recalled in horror on the heels of the tenth anniversary of the 2005 Federal Flood.
Again, the talk is of resilience.
How appropriate that these large scale tragedies dovetail into Rosh Hashanah, which begins this Sunday evening, and I will spend it breaking bread with new friends. These friends have helped introduced me to a concept that I would have never imagined a few years ago – Jewish renewal. I first read about it in Rodger Kamenetz’s The Jew in the Lotus, and I’m happy to report that he will be in our little group. It is the Jewish New year, 5776, and I would like to wish everyone L’Shana Tovah and ask that May You Be Inscribed in the Book of Life — as it is believed God opens the big book and makes all of the executive decisions for what will go down in the new year.
Rosh Hashana is … also the birthday of creation. It is a tradition that recognizes human frailty, freedom of choice and responsibility. A tradition that calls on each of us to re-create ourselves anew; to come closer to living in accord with our ideals and highest values. For the religious it is a chance to walk the path of God’s will, for the secular it is a chance to tune up their super-ego.
Jewish Renewal has no cogent definition especially for non-Jews, but suffice to say this Jewish girl who was raised Orthodox and who became a wandering Jew when my synagogue would not count me as the ten men needed to have a minyan to say the Kaddish (prayer for the dead) out loud for my father found renewal in its concept. The concept is that gone from the practice of Judaism today is the spiritual, the song and dance, the mystical and the magical and that was precisely what was missing – for me anyway.
I take Jewish renewal to mean going back to my foundation of what God and life is, and finding the wisdom that translates it all into modern knowledge. The God within us, the awe of life, and the magical breath, the in and out of breathing until you find a meditative or transformational state of mind. It means celebrating a Jew’s view of tzedekah – which is not simply charity but instead tzedakah is the root of life. When you give to others, you raise the sparks from their broken state. And you elevate your own soul. This is not simply giving, it’s about joining.
So here, days before the New Year, and days before the ten days of awe until we get to the fast on Yom Kippur, I will leave you with the most important part about this time of year. It’s a time to start again because God did not give Adam and Eve the key to how to begin in the Garden of Eden, he gave them the key to how to begin again. And that is truly what resilience is all about.
L’Shana Tova; May you be inscribed in the Book of Light.
Da Capo
Take the used-up heart like a pebble
and throw it far out.Soon there is nothing left.
Soon the last ripple exhausts itself
in the weeds.Returning home, slice carrots, onions, celery.
Glaze them in oil before adding
the lentils, water, and herbs.Then the roasted chestnuts, a little pepper, the salt.
Finish with goat cheese and parsley. Eat.You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted.
Begin again the story of your life.— Jane Hirshfield
