In that moment, all I could do was be. I couldn't talk or text or think. I became the Universe. The Universe was 5'11" long and shaped like me. I was all there was. I was me being ill. And me being the Universe. And the Universe experiencing being ill. I was a complete unity of body and soul, individual and whole, supine on grey carpet under florescent lights.
Read moreBlossom of the Universe (Rosh Hashanah 5780)
Together we can be a refugium – protectors of life. We can bring all our distinctiveness – our skills, our smarts, our songs – whatever the Tree of Life planted in us. Bring all of that to this community and to the other communities in which we are rooted around the world. We can share this vision, this consciousness, this love and longing at the root level, the way trees speak over distance through the mycelial network. We will be the protectors of people, places and creatures in need through the hard times, and the restorers and renewers of the landscape on the other side of it.
Read morePray for Rain
And when I'm done with some of these specifics, I try to broaden out and pray for love. Always love. That it should enfold this world. That there should be a field of love so thick, so viscous, that it slows bullets and catches falling people.
Read moreBumping into God
Or maybe you climb a mountain and spend 40 days and nights sitting in anticipation, maybe meditating, maybe praying. Until the hand of God appears, scribbling madly on stone.
Or maybe you follow a baby goat until you notice a burning bush. Or you chase a stray calf right into a cave filled with the light of Eden.
Or maybe you do nothing at all.
Read moreHymn of Glory (Imagining the Divine in Old Ashkenaz)
I had wanted to carry something with me, something talismanic, on this vist to Old Ashkenaz, the recent land of my ancestors, and the distant land of many of our ancestors. Then one of my teachers pointed me to this poem, and that was it. It was these words that I brought, back to their place of origin.
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