What We Can Gain from the High Holy Days

“Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle… The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation.”  

So said Albert Einstein he stared out into the vast universe in wonderment. The person who seeks religion, who yearns for God, is no different than the scientist who is on a quest to discern the underpinnings of the world.  Both the religious and scientist gaze outward toward the universe wide-eyed; they are openhearted feeling overwhelmed by its largesse and hoping to understand better how it works and what their place is in it.

Perhaps awe is the first step in apprehending what our purpose is in life. In fact, the, kabbalah echoes the sentiment when it says that the initial question every inquiring mind must ask as he cranes his neck up at the stars at night is ‘Who created these?’ Once a person can make such a declaration they become open to all possibilities no matter how sublime or pedestrian.

Another of the greatest minds of this past century, Abraham Joshua, Heschel, wrote passionately about how critical it is for every person to be full of wonder. He wrote, “Our goal 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.”

Why was Heschel so insistent on being child-like, full of wonder? ? Perhaps because wonder, aside from being the pathway to knowledge and the foundation of connecting with God, is also the cornerstone of love.

Wonder and love is looking and accepting. Wonder and love is astonishment and awed silence. Perhaps that is why so many people who have had a deeply, profoundly religious experience find themselves buffeted by quietude. Absolute peace.

To not accept the outside world as it is, to dismiss all things as mundane, is to ignore the cream of life.  And who would want to be absent from the greatest, most thrilling adventure that life has to offer?  The now.  The universe pulsates with abundant love.

In the aftermath of these High Holy Days (also known as the Days of Awe) my deepest hope is that you found a moment to be touched by God and feel the radical awe. I pray that you take many moments to look into the eyes of love and be amazed by what you see there.

Where Growth Begins

 Two Chelmite scholars were debating how people grow: Do they grow from the feet up of from the head down? 

The first said, “From the feet up, of course.  Last year, I bought my son a suit for his Bar Mitzvah, and at that time the pants were just the right length.  Now the pants only reach his ankles.   That proves that people grow from the feet down!”

“Fool,” snapped the second scholar.  “It’s obvious that people grow from the head down.  If you see a group of soldiers marching their feet are all at the same level.  But, if you look at their heads you will see that they are at different heights. That proves that people grow from their heads down.”

Both Chelmites were wrong.  We neither grow from the bottom up or the top down.  We grow from the inside out.

      In these waning moments of summer, I wish you growth.  Read Jewish books.  Come study with me.  Challenge yourself to climb new heights of spirituality.   Light your Shabbes candles.  Enjoy yourself, your loved ones and God.