High Holidays: COVID and An Unknown Destination
Rabbi Tom Samuels
We are in trying times. The Coronavirus’ unpredictability, its chasms of the unknown, cause us to feel vulnerable, scared: How long will it last? How far will it spread? How can we re-create that sense of enrichment, of holiness, of community when we are all so physically isolated? We human beings, after all, are social creatures. We desperately need to connect with each other. In person. Face to face.
This has been on my mind recently… a lot. How to establish new opportunities for deeper spiritual connection in this time of physical distancing? When our community is not able to meet in person to celebrate these High Holy Days. Shabbat. To share Torah. To stay connected to Judaism and to one another.
The Torah gives us a foundational ethos to help us navigate these challenging times and murky waters.
At the very beginning of the Torah, Abraham hears a call from God: Lech Lecha m’Artzecha… Go, leave, leave everything that you know, all that is familiar, all that is predictable, that feels safe… and go to a land that I will show you, to an unknown destination.
The indeterminacy of the journey.
Abraham leaves for the desert - a harbinger for the path of the people that will come from him, whose journey from the known to the untamed, unpredictable wilderness, is where both he, and they, encounter the Divine.
The Hebrew word for wilderness is midbar, from the root dbr, to speak. The connection between the wilderness and speech, Divine speech, is thus made: That when we leave the comfort, the familiar, when we head into the elemental terrain of the wilderness, we can access, encounter the voice of God, the Divine within.
In truth, Abraham’s final destination isn’t really all that relevant. It is the act of leave-taking itself, that painful, terrifying moment when Abraham leaves behind the known for nothing more than a promise.
We cannot predict exactly what this coming year will look like, let alone the next week, day, even hour. The only thing that is for sure is that we are in the eye of an unknown storm. Yes, a journey with an indeterminate destination. And, as with all transitions, all disruptions and changes, it will no doubt continue be a daunting process.
But, is this really something new? Haven’t we, humanity, been on an ever-evolving, ever-changing, unpredictable and continuous journey? Is this not part and parcel of our human condition? To wonder? To question? To dream and to cry? Isn’t this at the very core of being human?
On the cusp of entering the Promised Land, God tells the Israelites:
רְאֵה, אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם--הַיּוֹם: בְּרָכָה, וּקְלָלָה
Look, I place before you today a blessing and a curse. (Deut. 11)
One of the 20th century’s greatest Biblical commentators, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, interprets this Divine command as a call for human beings to take ownership of their lives:
“From the moment God said, “Look, I place before you today a blessing and a curse,” Rabbi Berlin writes, “the good and the bad no longer came by divine decree. Rather the good deeds created their own result, and the sins created their own results. That’s the explanation of, “I place before you”: it all depends on your actions.”
That when it comes to making tough choices in life, the onus and the responsibility falls on each and everyone of us. And, while God has given us humans the charge to take ownership of our lives… we do not have to do so alone. We do not have to travel along this path, take this journey, alone.
We are a sacred community with decades of experience helping each other through difficult times. Holding each other's hands. We are truly blessed.
Let us work together to emerge from this terrible virus and all of its frightening uncertainty, even stronger, closer and more connected to each other.
And so, I encourage us all to lean on those ever-relevant words of Rabbi Nachman of Bretslov: Kol ha’olam kulo gesher tzar me’od, veha’ikar lo le’fached klal, All the world is a very narrow bridge, and the most important thing is not to be overwhelmed by fear. These words speak a great truth: That life is so very precarious, and so very precious. That we are indeed at our strongest when we care for one another in times of need, B’ Agudah Ehad, as a united community. When our fears do not keep us from crossing life's inevitable bridges.
I wish for everyone health as we move through this challenging chapter together. May we find the inner strength and the inspiration, from each other, and may we we need to continue to truly thrive.
G’mar Chatimah Tova, Shanna Tova.
Rabbi Tom Samuels
We are in trying times. The Coronavirus’ unpredictability, its chasms of the unknown, cause us to feel vulnerable, scared: How long will it last? How far will it spread? How can we re-create that sense of enrichment, of holiness, of community when we are all so physically isolated? We human beings, after all, are social creatures. We desperately need to connect with each other. In person. Face to face.
This has been on my mind recently… a lot. How to establish new opportunities for deeper spiritual connection in this time of physical distancing? When our community is not able to meet in person to celebrate these High Holy Days. Shabbat. To share Torah. To stay connected to Judaism and to one another.
The Torah gives us a foundational ethos to help us navigate these challenging times and murky waters.
At the very beginning of the Torah, Abraham hears a call from God: Lech Lecha m’Artzecha… Go, leave, leave everything that you know, all that is familiar, all that is predictable, that feels safe… and go to a land that I will show you, to an unknown destination.
The indeterminacy of the journey.
Abraham leaves for the desert - a harbinger for the path of the people that will come from him, whose journey from the known to the untamed, unpredictable wilderness, is where both he, and they, encounter the Divine.
The Hebrew word for wilderness is midbar, from the root dbr, to speak. The connection between the wilderness and speech, Divine speech, is thus made: That when we leave the comfort, the familiar, when we head into the elemental terrain of the wilderness, we can access, encounter the voice of God, the Divine within.
In truth, Abraham’s final destination isn’t really all that relevant. It is the act of leave-taking itself, that painful, terrifying moment when Abraham leaves behind the known for nothing more than a promise.
We cannot predict exactly what this coming year will look like, let alone the next week, day, even hour. The only thing that is for sure is that we are in the eye of an unknown storm. Yes, a journey with an indeterminate destination. And, as with all transitions, all disruptions and changes, it will no doubt continue be a daunting process.
But, is this really something new? Haven’t we, humanity, been on an ever-evolving, ever-changing, unpredictable and continuous journey? Is this not part and parcel of our human condition? To wonder? To question? To dream and to cry? Isn’t this at the very core of being human?
On the cusp of entering the Promised Land, God tells the Israelites:
רְאֵה, אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם--הַיּוֹם: בְּרָכָה, וּקְלָלָה
Look, I place before you today a blessing and a curse. (Deut. 11)
One of the 20th century’s greatest Biblical commentators, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, interprets this Divine command as a call for human beings to take ownership of their lives:
“From the moment God said, “Look, I place before you today a blessing and a curse,” Rabbi Berlin writes, “the good and the bad no longer came by divine decree. Rather the good deeds created their own result, and the sins created their own results. That’s the explanation of, “I place before you”: it all depends on your actions.”
That when it comes to making tough choices in life, the onus and the responsibility falls on each and everyone of us. And, while God has given us humans the charge to take ownership of our lives… we do not have to do so alone. We do not have to travel along this path, take this journey, alone.
We are a sacred community with decades of experience helping each other through difficult times. Holding each other's hands. We are truly blessed.
Let us work together to emerge from this terrible virus and all of its frightening uncertainty, even stronger, closer and more connected to each other.
And so, I encourage us all to lean on those ever-relevant words of Rabbi Nachman of Bretslov: Kol ha’olam kulo gesher tzar me’od, veha’ikar lo le’fached klal, All the world is a very narrow bridge, and the most important thing is not to be overwhelmed by fear. These words speak a great truth: That life is so very precarious, and so very precious. That we are indeed at our strongest when we care for one another in times of need, B’ Agudah Ehad, as a united community. When our fears do not keep us from crossing life's inevitable bridges.
I wish for everyone health as we move through this challenging chapter together. May we find the inner strength and the inspiration, from each other, and may we we need to continue to truly thrive.
G’mar Chatimah Tova, Shanna Tova.