The Rock of Age

What makes living so difficult is that we have received so many mixed signals.

When we were young, the choices were minimal.  In fact, there were only two: right and wrong.  Life was simple because that was what we were taught and what our intellect could grasp.  Every action of the kids in the sandbox had a definition - it was good or bad.  If little Yankle threw sand into Havvah’s face, Yankle was punished.

As we grew, more messages, often contradicting our primary understanding of behavior, began to emerge.  Now, it was more important to win than lose.  Possessions began to matter to the extent that they defined our life’s purpose.  People who had a lot of things counted for more than people who had less.  Coming out “on top” in school, sports, various competitions, play, music or whatever became the focus of our endeavors.           

About the same time, hues of gray became more numerous than the black and whites of youth.  Truths were fewer while relative or ephemeral truths grew more numerous.  It became harder to tell the good guys from the bad guys.  Now when Yankle threw sand at Havvah, we asked what Havvah did to provoke Yankle.

Growing up brought with it ‘relative morality’.  Nothing was absolute any more.  There were no rights.  No absolute wrongs.  Everything depended upon your viewpoint.  In order to be truly objective, you had to understand every facet of a tale before making a judgment.  Of course, this made making judgments rather difficult, if not impossible.

A legend tells that Abraham and Sarah were the first people to grow old. Until their time, people aged but on the outside their appearance remained the same.  They did not grow wrinkled, infirmed, or stooped.  Young and old looked alike. Father Abraham became distressed because people confused him with his son, Isaac. “Master of the Universe,” he begged, “Make a distinction between father and son, between youth and old age.  In this way the elderly will be honored by the young.”
“Very well,” God replied.  “I will begin with you.” Abraham drifted into sleep.  When we arose the next morning he looked at his reflection in a pool of water: his eyes had grown dim, his hair turned white.  He turned inward.

The story overtly says something about aging.  Yet, under this veneer, the tale also reveals another deeper change that happens with time.  The race with others comes to an end.  “More” did not make us better people.  It did not even have a cap: more was simply a limitless chasm that could never be bridged.   “More” was a yawning, insatiable hunger that refused to be filled.  Beating the competition was also short-lived.  Around the same time, we stopped blaming the victim and instead took their side.  Almost miraculously we discovered that we were born to give, not take.

Maturity, whether it comes early or late, is referred to in our tradition as the “Shabbat of our Life.”  When we finally grow beyond the limitations of relative morality and emerge on the other side of life, a remarkable transformation has happened. 

In the Torah portion of Va-eira, we are told that Moses and Aaron were 80 and 83 when they came to demand the release of the Hebrews from Pharaoh.  Why does the Torah bother to interrupt a vital narrative that will result in the creation Jewish nation to tell their age?  Because, as the Sages tell us, Moses and his brother were not ready to deliver the people, receive the Torah, guide the foundling nation until they reached the age of maturity.

             Time can be a great gift, the greatest one we will ever receive.  “With years, comes understanding” as the Talmud sagely tells.  Like Psalm 91 states, “With age, we will flourish like a cedar of Lebanon.  Planted in the courtyards of our God, we shall bear fruit, even in old age.”  Seek the growth that comes with maturity.

By the Sweat of Your Brow

 The first human tale from Genesis has always energized me.  It consists of a perfect universe where the only flaw was God’s final creation...humanity.  Everything worked in harmony until man was invested with a single mitzvah of refraining from eating one specific fruit and this he could not keep. 

“And He said to Adam, “Because you ate from the Tree which I specifically told you not to eat, the earth is cursed on your account.  You will eat from it with pain for your whole life...You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow, until you, yourself, return to the ground....” Genesis 3

Many questions arise from this episode.  Here is one:  What is the meaning of this ‘sweat’?  Is it simply that humanity will have to work for its food where previously it was a gift?  Since the Torah uses its words with deliberation, the word sweat must not be redundant, unnecessary.  It must teach us something of depth, meaning.

            What do we know about sweat?  We know that it is salty, which is the reason why Jews customarily put salt on their bread before saying HaMotzie (reminding us of both the curse and the labor involved with making it).    We also know that salt changes the character of the food (the taste is altered) and of the land (where there is salt in the earth, little can grow).

            In times when purity was of utmost importance in Jewish life, a teaching emerges about the impact of sweat.  If a person were stirring a pot with ritually pure hands, but the pot is impure, her hands contract its impurity.  Where a person stirs a pot with hands that are ritually impure [they may have, for example, come in contact with death] and the pot was pure, the pot contracts the impurity of the hands.  Rabbi Yose comments that provided her hands dripped sweat into the pot.  Mishna Makhshirin

            Judaism is largely about recognizing that which inheres in all things.  Sweat transforms any item into something else.  It makes bread into a commodity that stems all the way back to the Garden of Eden.  Sweat allows us to contaminate, or be contaminated, without taking proper care.  Yet, perhaps the greatest benefit of sweat is that it allows us to appreciate the effort expended to make something happen.  Nothing, but nothing comes without labor, sweat.  I suspect that if we were to do something as inconsequential as thinking about where all our goods came from, it would permanently change our lives.

What Everyone Ought to Know About Judaism

A local student recently contacted me about gaining information about Judaism from a local rabbi for a college course she was taking.  She interviewed me and asked some well-thought questions.  She came equipped with many queries about the practices of Judaism.  I share them below:

1.  How has religion shaped your life?

 Judaism has influenced my life in more ways than I can enumerate.  It is the filter through which I see and hear all things.  I continually ask myself in every situation, ‘Is this what Judaism demands?’  ‘Is this what God wants?’   When I see a young man playing a guitar on the sidewalk with his guitar case open, I ask myself, what does my tradition demand of me?  Or, when I am insulted by unkind words or am the object of slander, what does the Torah tell me to do?  How do I react?  As the Jewish faith has an opinion and instruction about every facet of life it can always be asked, 'what is the Jewish approach to this issue?' 

As both Judaism and God care intimately about how we interact with one another and the world there is nothing that is removed from the gaze of Tradition.  We matter.  Other people matter.  The welfare of the world matters.  For all these reasons we must act in accord with Torah.

2.  What are the challenges, if any, to practicing this particular religion?

Judaism is a demanding religion.  It is not simply for the synagogue or religious events.  It is breathing, eating, talking, walking, business....all.   If there is an Omniscient, caring God then He does not only pay attention to us when we pray.  The eye of the Holy One is always peering at us and wants us to make the correct choices.  Ever since the exile from the Garden of Eden we have been burdened with the responsibility of making choices.

It is not always comfortable to be doing the right thing....especially when society is going in the opposite direction.   Yet, Judaism teaches through the many examples of the prophets that we are often called upon to make a moral stand.  We are called upon to speak for those who have no voice or for those who have lost the power of their voice.  We are charged to speak, sometimes yell, on their behalf. 

And then there is bias, hatred, anti-Semitism....  That is an ever-present challenge.  Still, hatred must never stand in the way of doing the right thing.

3. What are the important holidays and traditions of this religion?

 This is a very long answer.  There are many holy days that dot the year.  Look at a Hebrew calendar and there are major holy days, minor remembrances and small festivals that have through time blossomed into large, meaningful events.

Perhaps the most important of all the holy days is the most frequent one: the Sabbath.  It is God's day when He stopped the Creation process.  It is our day when we reconnect with the Maker and the universe.  Of course, Tabernacles (Sukkot), Pentacost (Shavuot) and Passover (Pesah) are also highly important.   Each of them contain elements of historical events (the passage through the Sinai wilderness, the anniversary of the Receiving of the Torah and Liberation from slavery) as well natural events (fall harvest, spring harvest and planting season) in addition to holy time of connection between the Jewish people and God.  Then, in a separate category, comes the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur.  Each one is unique with its many symbols of foods, shofar, study and prayer and vital to the lifeblood of Judaism.

4. What bible do the Jews use? Does it go by another name?

Our Bible is the same as your Old Testament.  While the order may vary slightly it is the same text.  We have other names for it in Hebrew but we call it Bible in English.

In our understanding we divide the Bible up into three sections.  They are the Torah, the Prophets (Neviim in Hebrew) and the Writings (Ketuvim).  If you take the first consonant from each of the three Hebrew words you have the Hebrew word for the Bible, Tanakh.

5. What is the Torah? How many books does it have?

Torah is the Hebrew word for Pentateuch (penta as in pentagram, pentagon, five).  Torah is the 5 books of Moses, or the first five books of the Bible.  The word Torah means Law or Instruction.

Often times, the word Torah is used to convey the idea of a God-given message.  For this reason Jewish people might say, “This is Torah” when they are referring a Law.

6. What is the Talmud? 

“Talmud” means learning.  For this reason Jews use the term Talmud Torah to indicate the learning of Torah.  However, the Talmud itself is the vast array of literature that is basically a long commentary and interpretation of the Bible.  The Talmud is what brings the Torah into sharp clarity and is the backbone of our observance today.

Contained in the sixty books of the Talmud are discussions and decisions of great Sages and scholars and saints through some six hundred years.  The discussions and decisions cover every area imaginable of human life from the most mundane to the utterly profound.  That the ancient rabbis dared to imagine all ideas from genetics and hygiene to unknown civilizations enabled this incredible document to be relevant two thousand years later.

7.  What is the Pentateuch?   See #5.

8. Is Judaism the first known organized religion? 

Judaism is the first organized monotheistic religion.  Many religions or cults came before Judaism.  Some are actually named in the Torah.  There was for example the cult of Baal.  What makes Judaism unique in history was that this was the first in human history that acknowledged a single God.  It also established one law for all people.  This law was not at the whim of a tyrant or ruler and its standard did not favor poor or rich, privileges or penalties of birth.

9.     Where did Judaism begin? 

 Judaism began with a single person and a contact from God.  The first call from God came to Abram in a distant land called Ur.  What is fascinating is that the “call” to Abram consisted of a single sentence to leave Ur and travel to the land of Canaan.  That is why Judaism has its real roots in Israel (Canaan) not Ur.  You see, God did not bless this patriarch until he reached Israel.  Only then did God establish His covenant with Abram and vow that this land would be his and belong to his descendants  throughout time.

10.  How did Abraham make his covenant with God? 

The first covenant happened early on in Genesis 15.  As mentioned above, Abram was a partner in the covenant only when he left his native land and was a resident in Israel.

11.  Seeing that God chose the Hebrews as his chosen people why are they always suffering? 

Jews are chosen and sometimes that is precisely why they suffer.  While God promises to be ever with the Jewish people there are no guarantees that other peoples and nations will not try to hurt or destroy us.  While they will ultimately be defeated evil things still happen.  Isn't that the way that life usually is?  If there is a person who stands for what is right when evil is being done, the evil ones first want to get rid of their conscience so they can carry out their evil.  So they destroy those who stand for good.  That is why the holocaust happened.  That is what is happening right now in Burma... 

God has demanded of all humanity that we act as the guarantors for one another.  Our responsibility to be “our brother’s keeper.”  We must keep our part of the covenant too.

12.  Seeing that Christians and Judaism use the same bible, and Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God. Were do Judaism stand on the point of Jesus being the Messiah? 

God gave to His people the Law.  That was God’s ultimate gift to the world.  It was to be our guide and touchstone of morality.  In the Bible there are indications that some time in the future God would also dispatch a messenger- a messiah- to bring to the world peace.  No peace has yet arrived.  That is why while Jesus' teachings are moral, upright and good they did not bring to the world universal peace that was promised.  So we wait until the day of great peace arrives.

13.  If the Jewish people did not believe that Jesus was Gods son and if he was would that not be like breaking his covenant? 

By our understanding God cannot have a son.  God is not mortal or flesh and blood and therefore the whole notion of a son of God is not part of our understanding.  As said in #12. the covenant is fulfilled.  God gave His Bible at Mt. Sinai 4,000 years ago.  He did not give anything else.  There was no New Testament or Koran or Book of Mormon; only the Bible.  If we were to accept another Bible, that would be breaking the holy covenant we have with God.  What He gave to us four thousand years ago had the mark of eternal life to it.  It would be sacrilege for us to accept anything else.

14.  What day is considered the Sabbath? How do the Jewish celebrate it?  

Our Sabbath is Saturday.  It is the weekly anniversary of God's rest after Creation.  You remember that early on in the book of Genesis God establishes the pattern of time in a precise manner.  He commences Creation on what later became known as Sunday and progressed through the next six days.  We imitate God by also refraining from creating on the seventh day.  That is why we do not work or produce changes in the physical universe.  In addition, we seek God through prayer, study, song and food.

15.  What is the difference between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews? 

There are three major branches of Judaism; Reform, Conservative and Orthodox.  There are many differences between them but the primary one is that they range from the most liberal in practice to the most strict.  Reform is the most liberal while Orthodoxy is at the other end of the spectrum.

16.  Most of the religions that I have been reading about are very male oriented (meaning that the highest in the church and the preachers are males). Is Judaism this way also or is it evolving with the changes of time? 

Another difference between the three Jewish sects (see # 15) is that Reform is completely egalitarian, Conservative is mostly egalitarian and Orthodox is the least.  The same is true for the leaders or rabbis of each denomination.  There are no female Orthodox rabbis.  Yet, there are many women who are great teachers of Torah in all three sects.

17, What are the hats called the Jewish men wear? What is the significance of them? 

They are called yarmulkes in Yiddish and they represent our subservience to God.  The origin of the word yarmulke means ‘fear of God.’  That is, when Jews wear head-coverings they do so to show their awe and love of the Almighty.  Jewish people wear the yarmulkes whenever they pray.  Some Jews, wanting to be conscious of God all the time, will never remove their yarmulke. 

 In Orthodoxy, some men show their deepest reverence by wearing larger yarmulkes or even hats when they pray.  Women also cover their heads out of respect for God and as a sign of modesty.

18. What is the Kabbalah? Are there any books related to this and if so how many?

Kabbalah is Jewish ancient mysticism.  It is a way of communicating with and understanding God. There are many varied books on this subject.  There is no one text.  Kabbalah is a pathway to God that requires great learning, skill and devotion. It is for people who not only devote their inner lives to finding God but live an upright life as well.  Only the learned and pious can travel through this gateway to God.

19. What is Hasidism?                                                                                                                  Hasidism is a branch of Orthodoxy that believes in maintaining strict practices and dress.  Separating and insulating themselves from the evils of society they tend to live in cloistered communities.  They also follow a charismatic leader.  They look to their leader for teaching and advice.  They also follow his words as they believe he is close to God. Consulting him on issues of Jewish lore and law as well as when considering business decisions, their leader is revered and loved.  They also like to celebrate God by telling stories, dancing and singing for the Almighty.

20. Do the Jewish believe in Heaven and Hell? 

We do have a concept of heaven and hell although they are very different from Christianity.  There is no anti-god because we do not believe that anything or anyone can contest God in power.  We also do not have Dante’s picture of hell as a place dominated by nightmarish ghouls and filled with pitch and sulfur.  Our image of heaven likewise is significantly different.  And yet, we have faith that there is an after-life and accompanying rewards and punishments for our deeds.

21. If Jewish do believe in Heaven and Hell. If a person who kills a bunch of people goes to jail and then realizes that he was wrong and ask for God to come into his heart, and another person who is a good person and thinks of everyone else and has never done anything wrong does not ask for God to come into his life. When these two people die will the person who killed all these people and later asked for God to come into his life go to Heaven?

There is Repentance or what Jews call teshuvah.  God knows the heart of a person and will know whether it is a true return to Him or a false one.  Then it is up to the Holy One alone to decide whether the person can be forgiven for their crimes.  We know that God does forgive for sins committed but who is forgiven is not something that we can know.  No person knows the mind of God to be sure whether God forgives them or not.  We believe that if a person knew what God was thinking that they would be God.  As a result, all we can do is admit our shortcomings and ignorance.  We just do not know.

God is so obscure, inscrutable, and beyond our comprehension that there may even be times when our eyes perceive only a fraction of reality.  As humans, we may even confuse evil and good because our vision is so limited.  We may never know the whole story of any event.  

That is why Judaism exhorts, demands of us that we be very deliberate when making judgments.  It is very easy to make mistakes.  Once we have made a judgment it has a long-lasting and perhaps permanent effect upon the universe. If a court of law determines a person to be guilty of a crime and later reverses its decision, damage is done.  The accused has been scarred.  The same is true of lesser judgments that people make all the time.  When we decided someone is a liar and tell others we have hurt someone in a way that cannot be reversed even by apologizing.  It is therefore vital to maintain a just world but to be sure to never become so haughty as to believe that we know the heart of another human being.  Only God knows that.  He will reward or punish as He deems it. 

22.        Most religions have a special way of eating or diet, and I see that the Jewish person eats a Kosher meal. What are Kosher meals?  And why are foods considered unclean?

The Bible demands a number of things from every God-fearing person who accepts the authority of the Holy Book as binding.  One of them is that we are restricted from eating certain kinds of animals (check Leviticus 11). It is not just the pig that is forbidden to the Jew.  Any animal that does not chew its cud and have a  cleft hoof is not kosher.  There are also two criteria for fowl (not talons and no carrion) and fish (fins and scales) which make it kosher.  In addition, there are numerous prohibitions about consuming the blood of creatures (see Deuteronomy 12).  For this reason, Jews are repulsed from consuming any amount of blood whatsoever.  Part of keeping the kosher laws mean removing all vestiges of blood from an animal. 

“Unclean” is a term that is first used in Noah's time to refer to animals that must not be eaten.  Much later on God explains what these animals are to the Israelites in Leviticus, chapter 11.  We understand them later as not kosher, instead of ‘unclean.’

23. The Holocaust was the most horrific thing that has happened to people to date. How has this shaped Judaism overall?

We believe that nothing is meaningless.  Every action no matter how small or large is without consequence.  If this is true, then events such as the Holocaust become even more meaningful because of the scope of their horror and power.  People as nations -- as well as individuals -- are powerfully changed by what happens to them.  Jews are assuredly scarred by the events of more than sixty years ago.  It is such a massive and painful event that the utter ugliness, the absolute evil of the Holocaust casts a terrible shadow.  The pain of past still haunts us.

24. How has the Holocaust affected the Jewish feelings toward God? There is no specific universal reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust.  People responded to the enormity of the Holocaust in many varied ways.  Some were brought closer to God by it; some were distanced.  One thing is sure: no one remained unchanged or indifferent.

25.   Did you lose any family in the Holocaust? 

Yes.  Every Jew lost somebody even if they do not know their identity. Think of it this way: More Jews were murdered in the Holocaust than are alive today in America.

26. Were you in anyway there during the Holocaust?

 I was born afterward.

27.  Is Israel and the Palestine's still fighting over Jerusalem? Why can't this land be shared between the Jewish and Muslims seeing that both parties believe it is Holy land?

There is still fighting between Jews and Palestinians over not just Jerusalem but over much, if not all, of Israel.  As you undoubtedly know, the present leader of Iran has declared his intention to wipe Israel off the map.  He desires to murder every Jew living there.  Just like Hitler.  Is it possible to make peace with someone who does not want to speak with you but will only be satisfied when you are obliterated?  That is not to say that Ahmadinejad is a Palestinian but his regime continues to pay the families of suicide murderers tens of thousands of dollars for each atrocity they commit.

Having said that, Israel would gladly live in peace with anyone that wanted to live harmoniously with them.  The problem is with the suicide murderers that creep into civilian populations and ruthlessly cut down innocents.  Imagine if murderers went into the local Wendys in America and blew themselves up along with dozens of other families.  It is hard to make peace with people who only wish to destroy you.  When Jordan, a moderate Arab state, held Jerusalem throughout all the 50's and most of the sixties, Jews were denied access to the holy places.  Some holy sites were even desecrated.  Now that Jerusalem is in Israeli hands Jews, Christians and Muslims can freely visit any place they want.

28. Does Judaism require that there be a pilgrimage to the holy land?  

In Biblical and Temple times it was mandated that every Jew needed to make the pilgrimage several times each year.  Now, most Jews do visit the Holy Land to meet God but it is not demanded by Jewish Law.

29.   Are there any sacred practices that Jewish have to perform?

We have many sacred practices.  There are simply too many to list.

30.  What types of racism have Jewish endured in the United States?

There has been exclusion from colleges, professions, slanderous assaults, epithets and even murder....It is called anti-Semitism. 

31.  What is bar Mitzvah? 
Bar/Bat Mitzvah: When a child graduates from childhood into adulthood they pass through their symbolic coming of age, Bar/Bat Mitzvah.  It is when a child transitions from a young person to a semi-adult.  For Jews, this time represents coming under the aegis of God.  Until then they are children and are not fully responsible for their actions.  Now, at Bar/Bat Mitzvah when they are coming into puberty we expect them to fulfill the commandments of God and not just fall under the shadow of their parents.  At the same time, we afford them responsibilities and privileges in the Jewish community that only adults can do (like leading the congregation in prayer, for one example) as a way to treating them as almost grown-ups.  Yet, still they are not full-fledged adults for another five years.
 

The Hole in our Boat

A tale from the Talmud tells of a boat at sea which has several passengers on it.  After a while, one of them becomes bored.  He takes out a drill and begins to peel away layers of wood as a threatening hole begins appears at the bottom of the boat.  The other passengers suddenly become alarmed and shrieked, “You are going to make the whole boat sink.  Stop!”   The man, undisturbed, replies, “Don’t worry I am only drilling under my seat.”

Sounds like a joke but it is not.  It is a two-thousand year old parable.  What the story tells is that the things we do impact others.  Nothing we do; no act performed, is done in a vacuum.  One person decides they want to sink the boat and will have an impact on others.

Cries of “Save us!” have been screamed across the Atlantic Ocean aimed at us through the past decades.  Throughout the African continent, voices have gone unheeded from the Sudan, Rwanda, South Africa, Nigeria….  Defenseless against the onslaught civilians cry to be heard.  No response.  And so the murderous assaults continue even as the world dithers about what course of action to take.

Ever wonder why suicide is against the law?  If the general rule of thumb is that what one does in the privacy of one’s home is only their concern, then suicide ought to be not bother anybody.  And yet we, as a society, roundly condemn such acts against the self.  The only reason for the prohibition of suicide is the cessation of life; the very act of ending, affects the rest of us. 

In our time we have an international gathering of some fifty-three countries we call the United Nations.  In the aftermath of a massive war that enveloped the world, the most influential countries gathered to form the League of Nations.  Powerless to prevent the next World War, the League of Nations disbanded only to be reborn and renamed the United Nations.  Its rightful mandate is to make the world more humane.

Is the world more humane than it was?

Pol Pot was responsible for the deaths of one-third of his country in the 1970’s.  The term “Ethnic Cleansing” was only introduced recently in Yugoslavia.  Then there was the brutal half million murders that happened in Rwanda.  Each time these acts of genocide were being done, the world knew.  It was widely reported and subsequently ignored by the world just as news of the Holocaust was turned aside fifty years before.

The United Nations has yet to take a meaningful position on the horrors of our day.   A hole is being drilled as we sit in our small boat.  Someone needs to shout a warning that we are all in danger.

Kick ‘Em in the Shins

Kick ‘em in the shins is a philosophy of life.

It goes like this: If you kick them in the shins they will stop complaining about their headache.  Now, while I am not suggesting anyone commit any small act of violence, the idea does work.

From a religious point of view it generally works, too.  There are few times when we have great clarity of vision.  Most often our view is obscured by doing the shopping, picking up the kids, picking up after the spouse, preparing dinner, working, servicing the car, mowing the lawn….  

In the midst of all these errands and obligations, we lose sight of the reason are doing them.  Work is for clothes and food and shelter.  The car is to make it possible to work.  Eating is the seminal communal activity that binds the family.   School is to gain basic tools for survival.  

Yet the reality of most people’s lives is that we work to get “more things” and have our self-esteem boosted.  We wear clothes to make statements to others about our prosperity and taste.  We drive non-utilitarian cars to draw attention to our economic status.  We eat because we are hungry and do so swiftly so that we can get to the important tasks of watching our favorite television program or shuttle junior to the game.  Likewise, the premise of school is to have a good Grade Point Average in order to get to the next level: The object is not to learn.

No wonder life is so unsatisfactory.  It bleeds us without allowing for replenishment.  The basic life functions which nourish the soul like eating a leisurely meal and enjoying the family news of the day with one another gives great rewards.  Time spent keeping busy is not synonymous with living.  In fact, most of us are just waiting for life to really begin.  The stuff thus far does not qualify as living….

Still, every now and again comes the vision of how life is really supposed to be.  Not surprisingly, the clarity comes when someone close to us is near death.  With startling lucidity everything makes sense: the car is irrelevant, the electronic toys are meaningless, the unceasing carpools are an utter waste of time.  Time spent holding hands becomes the only currency.  Money saved from years of scrimping are meaningless in the “shadow of death” and the ultimate meaning of life.  Words of love exchanged are gold.  Nothing else matters.  It’s like being kicked in the shins.

Religion is supposed to make us feel more alive.  Think of how often the liturgy reflects nothing more than thanks.  Think of how often the liturgy reflects nothing more than thanks. The ideas are repetitive bordering on banal.  Yet, it’s like being kicked in the shins.

Jerusalem

The only gift that time does not supply is more time.

King David – for reasons not known – established the city of Jerusalem as the capital.  Until then, it was just another village in Israel.  With great fanfare the King paraded and danced as the hewn stones from Sinai were carried into Jerusalem to make it official.

In the next generation, Solomon went a step further; He built the Temple.  On Mount Moriah the glistening edifice was testimony to a unified universe.  Three thousand years ago there was peace in the land.  With Jerusalem as capital of Israel, leaders traveled leagues to gain inspiration and insights from Solomon’s breadth of knowledge.

Three millennia later we again find ourselves gazing at Jerusalem as the pivotal core of the world.  There is no strategic reason for this.  Israel does not sit on any natural deposits that make it indispensable.  It simply lies amid an ocean of oil-rich Muslim states.  Nothing more.

Astride the ancient outer wall of Jerusalem, the Kotel, there is a place reputed to be the place where Jacob has his vision of a ladder that reached from earth to heaven.  In his vision, the patriarch saw angels climbing and descending.  According to the Sages, this was the doorway to the Upper World.  Jacob’s inner vision enabled him to see what others could only vaguely sense.  The name for this passage is gevilon.  The gevilon, or hole in the firmament, allows the souls of this world to sense something infinitely greater, more wondrous than their physical senses would allow.  Jerusalem is that point of conduit.

The name Jerusalem comes from two words which, when joined together, mean “City of Peace.”  Can there be such a place?  Especially in this time of great pain?  The city seems to be misnamed.  Yet, pilgrims continue to gather at the foot of the kotel and insert notes of hope and prayer into its crevices.  Countless people have collected at the Wall, each coming away awed and inspired.  Nations wrestle with the future of this impractical city.  In fact, the world seems poised, breathing anxiously, over its fate.  Perhaps they suspect what our tradition indicates.

“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning.”  Frankly, this old Biblical proverb is a self-fulfilling aphorism.  Once Jerusalem has been forgotten, once the gevilon has been ignored, our life’s meaning has been lost.  

Jerusalem is about peace and yet it so often has become the center of anguish.  Perhaps people become too confused when they reflect on the city’s proximity to God.  Perhaps they become fearful that they will lose the ability to own “holiness.”  Whatever the reason, I eagerly await the day when the nations of the world can allow healing and wholeness to traverse the gevilon one again.  Then perhaps once more Jerusalem shall be known as the “City of Peace.”