Dear Holy Souls of the Nahalat Shalom Community,
Last November during the New Mexico Storytelling Festival I had the pleasure to meet many of you as we danced together, prayed together, and told stories together. Come the High Holy Days I look forward to sharing these things with you again and meeting more of you. As we enter the month of Elul, I want to recognize how much we have all been holding both collectively and personally.
This past month Tisha b’Av, the 9th of Av, was observed. It is our collective day of mourning for the destruction of the two ancient Temples, along with other losses that the Jewish people have endured over the centuries. This year our grief is very present over the horrors that continue to unfold in the Middle East. Israeli hostages remain in captivity, while thousands of Palestinians in Gaza continue to die from the war. This year we also mourn as divisions have grown within our Jewish communities over the various perspectives on Israel. So too, we mourn the deepening polarization between the political parties of the US. Many of us also are mourning personal losses.
Our bodies store the grief each of us has experienced. Take a moment and breathe into your body. Where do you notice the grief being held inside you? While Tisha b’Av represents structures that are falling apart, we also learn that it is through the brokenness that wholeness and hope re-emerge. The Talmud teaches us that “There is nothing more complete than a broken heart.” Paradoxically, it is through our broken hearts that we can begin to enter into the deep work that Elul calls us to do.
Yet to do this deep work we first need comfort as we begin to repair our inner Mishkan, our inner sanctuary of body, heart, mind, and spirit. Return to the place in your body where you feel grief. Can you place your hands there and give yourself a touch of comfort and love? A couple weeks ago Isaiah’s words, “Nachamu, nachamu ami” “Comfort, comfort My people,” began the Seven Weeks of Comfort as we head towards Rosh Hashanah. Six days after Tisha b’Av our Jewish calendar offers us the celebration of Tu b’Av, the 15th of Av. On this ancient day women danced in the vineyards, exchanged white dresses so no one knew who was rich or poor, and pursued love. Tu b’Av initiates these weeks of comfort as it is a day in which love, comfort, and joy reawaken and become the guiding light as we head towards Elul.
We are reminded of the acronym for Elul “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li,“ “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.” The mystics teach that Elul is a time when “the Divine Presence is in the field.” What Divine Presence means for each of us will vary. Perhaps it is access to the flow of love as it shows up in your life. Perhaps it is connecting with the voice of the natural world. Perhaps it is talking with a good friend. Perhaps it is the belly laughter of a child. Perhaps it is listening quietly to the “still small voice” within yourself.
Throughout Elul the shofar is sounded with its broken and whole blasts. We are called to wake up and to begin to take a deep and honest look at ourselves. How has our grief, our fear, our judgements led us to act in ways that has caused a breakdown in our ability to see the Divine within ourselves and within each other? This is the beginning of the process of teshuvah, of return, we begin this month.
In order to do the work of teshuvah, we first have to come to a place of inner kindness, love, and comfort. What is it that supports you with comfort right now? A cup of warm tea, biting into a summer fruit? A hug from a loved one? Praying, dancing, singing, writing, painting...? Where in your body does comfort dwell? Can you breathe into that place?
As my dear teacher and mentor, Rabbi Diane Elliot asks, “What brings us goodness and how can we direct ourselves to it, even through the personal and global difficulties?” She goes on to say that this is a time to “re-dedicate ourselves to the forces of love.” While the individual task of teshuvah is a personal journey, as part of a holy community, we are not alone as we travel together on this journey of return. I look forward to joining the community during the Elul Shabbaton Sept. 20 – 21 in which I will lead an embodiment practice to help us prepare our inner Mishkan for the High Holy Days.
Here in Portland, Oregon a gentle rain falls, nourishing the earth as crickets softly sing their late summer songs. The daylight grows shorter. Plums, apples, and tomatoes grow ripe. The school bell a half a block away rings as students return to classes. In these rhythms of the seasons and nature we are reminded of something much bigger than all of us. There is a sense of turning inward and listening. In the words of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z’l, “Listening is not easy. But listening alone bridges the abyss between soul and soul, self and other, I and the Divine." May we each be blessed to find the comfort and love that supports us right now. And may our hearts be blessed to listen more closely to the Divine Presence within the parts of ourselves that we love and are challenged by as well as within those we love and with those who challenge us. L’Shalom, Reb Rivkah