Pre-paring to Re-pair

Welcome to Elul.

The month of pre-paring, paring down for the Days of Awe.

The month that pre-pares down to the essence of re-pairing with G. We pare down to the three pillars of re-pairing with our soul: the three pillars on which the world stands, Torah, prayer and acts of kindness.

Elul is the month of re-turn. We re-turn to our original balance by seeking forgivness. We forgive others as we seek forgiveness for ourselves.

Would you like to change something in your life?

Now is the time.

The doors open up for us now.

Opportunities that have been invisible to us throughout the year, appear at this holy time..

Now is the time.

However..

We cannot repair the world alone.

We need to be in relationship to repair our torn world. We need to pair up as we pare down. It is time to seek our pairing again.

It is time to re-pair with The Wholly One of Being.

It is time to re-pair with our highest levels of soul, our highest selves through the Awesome Days that we call High HolyDays. The Shofar blasts away the extraneous, the extra baggage, as we pre-pare down and re-pair up.

Our sacred calendar contains the secret map.

There are many who know how to read this Jewish map.

It teaches us that the 'reign' of our eternal council

washes away the dust of our travels.

It teaches us that the winds of change

blow the shofar blasts of return on the hot, dusty road of life.

It teaches us that gaia's seasons

council our connections with the sacred within the mundane.

The cycle of seasons are embedded with the connections

to re-pair us with our past

as we follow the gaia seasons into the future,

seasoned with the joys and sorrows of life.

And yet, our complacency misplaces our read on the map of our journey. When we come together at this season of great opportunity, we can experience a sacred council re-minding us of our mindful path. And then, our compacency can be pared away in consciousness.

When we pre-pare down, re-pair up and re-mind ourselves in mindfulness, we re-discover, the wholeness, the holiness of life.

By joining together for the High HolyDays, we are re-pairing with our tribal connections during these Awesome Days.

When we come together, when we re-turn, turn again to our Tribal path together, the weight is lifted, the wait is over and we who have pre-pared down and re-paired up and re-turned to the path together are ready to journal another year as we journey into 5769.

Let's turn again to our Tribal path together,

Reb Bahir

Shabbat of ‘Word/things and visions/divisions'

Shabbat Hazon is the Shabbat of ‘Word/things and visions/divisions.’ I take the name from the title of the Torah portion, D’varim and the Haftarah, Hazon. In the Torah Moshe uses words to remind us of what was. In the Haftarah Yishiyahu paints a vision with words of what will be. It is a fitting theme for the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av.

This year Tisha B’Av falls Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night) and Shabbat Hazon is tonight. Tisha B’Av is the time when we look at all the troubles and travails of our times and our times of yore. We weep for the loss of the 2 Temples and for countless millions murdered in pogroms, inquisitions and holocausts. It is the low point of loss for the Jewish people. We close our eyes and see the visions of destruction and despoliation. We speak the words of woe.

And yet we do not curse our enemies, we do not rant for revenge. Instead we look within. In D’varim, the passage called ‘Word/things’, Moshe is preparing us for the next chapter in our evolution revolution. He prepares us by reviewing. We re-view, we look back again. We study our history in the spiritual hope that when we retrace our mis-steps we will not mis-step again. But Moshe does more than restate. He hints at our root sin of complacency, where we assimilate, where ritual becomes meaningless. In D’varim 4:25 Moshe warns of turning formed things into gods. Woe unto us lest we turn to expensive cars and clothes and neglect the needy. For when our own ‘things’ become more important than our fellow earthlings, we become idol worshippers, worshippers of ‘I-dolls”. There it is in that one sentence, the Remez, the Key/clue to our self-destruction as a people, indeed all people. The prophecy of destruction has been out there for a long time. Whether we are abusing our planet or our civil rights, we are turning to false gods. When we threaten others for not accepting our religious beliefs or our political beliefs, we have turned to false gods.

But, where our Torah portion points with one verse, our Haftarah hammers us with the hard lessons. Paying lip service to our ideals but not paying living service to them is the accusation. Talking our walk but not walking our talk is the accusation in Yishiyahu 1:1-27. That we parade out our rituals with pomp and hypocrisy is the accusation. For what do we need sacred places if we do not make them of our homes and hearts? I go to the church, I go to the synagogue, I go to the mosque, I go to the temple yet I ravage my neighbors’ rights, I belittle his beliefs, I fight his faith. Yishiyahu cries out to us: “Your hands are covered in blood!” To whom does the prophet speak, but to us all. Islamic fundamentalist terror, American callousness, Jewish insensitivity, Christian self-righteousness, is there a people who is blameless?

Our world is the Temple to which Yishiyahu and Moshe refer and its destruction is upon us. These word/things carry power. These visions of division point to our self-destruction. My Rebbe once told me that he thought that when we entered outer-space and looked back on earth all war would end for we would see the oneness of our planet. Moshe tried to direct us to look back to see the oneness of our spirit. We all have a vision of what might be. That vision is a di-vision, two visions. One vision is of the world that could be if we were to work for oneness and one if we continue to look upon divisions with derision.

The Shabbat after Tisha B’Av is called Shabbat Nahamu, the Shabbat of comfort. We have had the Shabbat of the two visions, the di-vision. Then comes the warning of Tisha B’Av the re-view of the sad state to which this world has been brought. And finally we enter with great need the Shabbat of comfort, a Shabbat that challenges us for comfort requires us to ‘come-forth’. For that is the only answer. We need to come forth. We need to come to the fore with answers that build, with answers that accept, nay revel in the differences that make us one. I have heard this country called a melting pot. What a ghastly metaphor. One pours different materials into a melting pot, melt them down and those that remain different are called slag and discarded. No, dear friends we are not a melting pot G forbid. We need to become a stew. In a stew each ingredient adds to the whole, each ingredient has its own unique taste and contributes to the stew in its own way. And let this not be the metaphor for a country, a religion, a race. Let it be the calling card of our planet. We are a stew simmering with differences that make us one. We each add to the flavor of whole, we do not detract, deride nor destroy. Rather we bring to this world a “ray’ach Nicho’ah” a pleasant aroma of a world self-sustainable a world blessed with peace.

May that be the lesson Shabbat Hazon, the Shabbat of vision of the past and of a brighter future.