The Cat's Meow

We know one another reasonably well. We ought to, after years together. One of the things I try to impress time and time again is the need for dialogue, healing, and love within the family. We can’t expect to find harmony in the community, or the world if there is no harmony in our small, micro orbit.

     When, years ago, a small plaintive sound was heard on my front step I knew something ominous was about to occur. I just didn’t know how life would change so quickly.

     It turns out that a small black kitten had found its way to our home. Making tiny throaty noises it painfully asked for food and succor. We gave both, in abundance.

     The kitten moved into the house bringing with it a litter box, countless toys, sheds of once venerated fabric on chairs and couches, smelly open cans of cat food and the most strange noises next to my head around four a.m.

     Not that I am complaining. The fact that half my family remained allergic to cat dander has nothing to do with this article. Nor does the fact that a bunch of kids and one cat makes for some unusual reactions in my house around 6:30 each evening. A new love object entered our lives.

     I happen to be a big fan of animals. I love dogs. Had quite a few of them over the years. They were my best friends growing up.( Did you know that my first pulpit was in a small English town called Barkingside? No joke.)

     What worried me was that the cat becomes the equivalent of a house member. I have had more than a single argument with members of the congregation on the differences between a human and an animal. Some tenderhearted, well-intentioned people are under the misapprehension that animals and people have the same value. Oy.

     It is a disturbing fact that only a little “ t “ separates a rabbit from a rabbi. And secretaries seem not to keep the two distinct even with spell check. As Alfred E. Neuman once said,  “What? Me worry? “

Hanukkah's Value

     Value is arbitrary. That is to say, the value we place on something is totally subjective. Nothing tangible has any intrinsic value.

      For instance. The reason gold is worth lots is because there is not an abundance of it and people want it. If people were not willing to pay for it, it would be worthless.

     For instance. Even money has absolutely no value. If we were to stop using it and instead bartered for our needs (or used ‘bitcoins’), the dollar bills would be only good for wallpapering our homes.

     Oil has value only because it is needed in our machine-based society. If we gave up on all forms of power that require petroleum-based products oil would be left to sit in the ground.

     Our holidays celebrate concepts. Think of it: we recall the Exodus at Pesah so that we will remember the value of freedom. We observe Shavot to be conscious of the value of the Torah and its morality. The High Holy Days are about Teshuva and Sukkot tells us about nature and the impermanence of things.

     What is Hanukkah about? Hanukkah’s concept is about hope and deliverance. The Festival of Lights occurs in the deepest folds of cold winter. We light candles in our home to dispel of darkness, the gloom. How much light does it take to chase away darkness? Only a tiny flame.

     Hanukkah is about the despair and forgotten people who discovered a tiny bottle of oil, which infused their hearts with hope. The message of Hanukkah is clear: Never are you alone and there is always hope for tomorrow. These are the values that buoy and sustain us. We as Jews, need to covet these with more fervor than “things”

A Joyful Festival of Lights to you and your family.

Choose Joy

Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, included as a part of our new democracy the right to pursue “happiness.“  

With all the grousing that we see on the nightly news, read in our papers, hear on radio, listen to in the aisles of the supermarket, and in conversations between friends you may begin to believe that happiness is a rare phenomenon.  Listen to what we talk about.  The weather is terrible, so-and-so has cancer, the next-door neighbor is a braggart, personal betrayals, unsatisfactory jobs, dishonest politicians, and someone’s dog always goes on our lawn.  Is finding happiness really that difficult that its opposite seems to fill our days?

People define personal happiness in a variety of ways but it seems elusive. 

Rebbe Nachman, a particular hero of mine, wrote, “The human’s image-making faculty is the source of all temptation.  If it becomes dominant, it results in depression…one forgets one’s purpose in life.  We have to fight back and aim to be continually happy so as to break the power of our imagination.” 

Nachman was indicating the idols we craft and the danger they create.  When we equate “things” with happiness we are making idols that will doom us to sadness.  No thing has the power to make us happy.  That which makes us happy is purpose.  And, of course, there is no greater purpose than the goal of proximity to God.

Why would closeness to God create joy?  There are several possibilities:

1.     A relationship with God is not self-defining or physically enriching.  It is a search, a question, and deep concerned thought.  It is direction, purpose.

2.     It is quiet.  Connection with God is meaningful moments of solitude and reflection bringing us focus and calm.

3.     Prayer is a paradox.  At once it elevates while another time it carries us to new sobering realizations about the self.  We do not necessarily get what we want but we get what we need.

4.     Closeness to God is not automatic.  It comes because we desire it.  The want to be close to our Maker pushes away the idols, which we have given too much attention to and have made us mostly unhappy.

Happiness is a choice, reveals Rebbe Nachman.  It is both a choice and takes ongoing effort.  It is also something our Founding Fathers believed was connected to God.  After all, that sentence in the Declaration of Independence includes “the Creator” as a part of that right and path to happiness.  It almost goes without saying that the Torah leads us to that same conclusion time and again.   Isn’t every tale we read in Genesis - from Adam to Joseph – about the human path to happiness including God?

Eleventh century scholar, Judah HaLevi wote, “Your contrition on a fast day is not more acceptable to Him than your joy on the Sabbath and holy days, it if is the outcome of a devout heart.”  Yom Kippur is surely a great day of reckoning and awe.  Yet, what God knows, and what He wants us to learn, is that the joy of life is supposed to outweigh the “oy” of life.  In the faith of our ancestors we actively seek the light of joy.  Drink a toast to God on Friday nights.  Light candles and bless Him and the ones you love.  Say a prayer for someone.  Sing the Sh’ma as you put your head on your pillow.