From Where I Sit - Purim

From Where I Sit

My Dear Friends


Many may argue the facts behind the fable. Some will tell you that its origins are rooted within the mists of mythology; god and goddess. Marduk and Ishtar joining in ascendancy and certainly there are elements of that. Traditionalists will tell you that the story is exactly accurate as written. The story is the word of G in which we see the hidden hand of G. Historians will tell you that Ahshverosh (sounds like a sneeze) was really Xerxes and on and on.

But as for me, in reading Sacred scripture, I have the one and only definitive and absolutely correct answer to the fractured fracas of factuality of the chronicles.
(Drum roll please…)

The answer is: "I don't care!"

I do not go to my sacred guide to ferret out facts; I wander through TaNaCh (Bible) tracking truths, personal paths to probe.

When I read the text, I first peruse the Pshat, the simple contextual meaning. Pshat is the preface to the magical mystical tour of Torah learning. It is a step not to be skipped. But it is only the first step.

The next level requires the Sherlock Holmes in us. It is called Remez.

Remez are the hints that we use to discover the deep mysteries within the parable of Purim. Remez becomes questions.
Oh look here is one now>>>> “which forces are visible and which go on behind the curtain of this juicy holiday?”

To explore the answers we must delve deeper than Pshat. We wade into the waters of Kabbalah. Here, truly we find the magical mystical Mikvah and immerse ourselves freely, openly.

If we are going to play the Kabbalist Sherlock Holmes (KSH) we must be willing to descend deep into the waters, the source of life. To us, as KSH (Kabbalist Sherlock Holmes), it is evident that whatever we find in those sacred waters is, in reality deep within our own psyche, our spiritual DNA just waiting for us to open the treasure trove. In that treasure trove is the dangerous but delightful Drash lurking, waiting for us to feed upon it.

Drash is the personal interpretation that will be right to one person but meaningless to another. My Drash might be formidable fuel for my future and yet without meaning or merit to someone else. This is the unique power of Drash. When I use it to power my search for meaning, my Spirit Quest, it is very powerful search engine. If I use it to try to convince others of the rightness of my path, its dangerous sharp sharded sides reveal themselves.

In the Drash interpretation that we find when diving deep into the sacred waters of the story of Purim we must dare to open that hidden treasure trove. It has a power to replenish our soul's life force. That force will lead and guide us to direct and control our responses to all the future events in life. It might even hold the key to our personal power and the bounty that will abound through us in the Assiyah world where we all reside.

In the eyes of KSH, Megilat Esther speaks to the forces that unfold in the innermost parts of our five-fold soul. Forces that direct us, point out for us the riches of relationship with the Wholly One of Being. It becomes a guide to the life giving waters, a treasure map to the treasure trove. We discover through our exploration of Drash the names of these forces; they are called Mordechai, Esther, Haman, and Ahashverosh.

The story of Purim unfolds before the building of the second temple. At this stage, the people of Yisrael who represent the desire to begin the Spirit Quest live calmly and peacefully in the kingdom of Ahashverosh. One way of translating Yisrael is Yashar El. This represents the desire to go straight (Hebrew – Yashar) to (Hebrew – El -- G) the Source of Blessing and to learn from G the ways of the universe, the ways of life on this planet and beyond.

Mordechai, in this Drash/interpretation, represents the inner force that desires Devekut, that oneness with the Source of all. Yet in the story Mordechai seems to live in happy complacency in a peaceful kingdom. Where was the desire? The questions tantalize and tease us into delving deeper.

By careful examination, playful exploration we bring some golden coins from the treasure trove to the surface. From the very beginning, there are Remez - hints in the narrative that something is not quite right: "There is one nation that is scattered among the nations," says the text. Israel is that 'nation' and we are scattered, as opposed to being centered. Do you see how subtle the Remez are? We almost missed it. Yet our Remez map jumps out at us like a road sign to the discontent and disconnect on the human path. It is a sure sign that humanity has not yet found its soul path, its destiny, for only in the unity of difference can we find our goal, to live according to the ways of earth and heaven. In other words the only way to get it together is together.

The evil Haman represents the self centered ego in us, what Yisrael needs to avoid or, as in the story, defeat. Haman's goal is to exploit the situation for selfish gain. He is the one who despoils the earth, who blurs distinctions between peoples or foments hate for those differences. He eventually wants to overthrow the King. He is the descendent of Amalek the destroyer. He is the ancestor of Hitler (Yimach Shemo). He is all those who tell us that to be different is to be less, unequal. His lesson is that differences are to be used, misused and exploited. He is also the one who declares that all people are the same, and we should give up distinctions and differences, the very flavor, the spice of life. Our goal is to notice differences, accept differences, and revel in differences. That is the revelation of difference.

Haman sees and seizes opportunity in the idea that Israel is a 'scattered nation', calling it weakness, confusion and lack of faith. He finds the situation an excuse for eliminating, from the face of the earth, those who are different. They stand between him and his short sighted, selfish greed: exploiting Gaia earth spirit and the Creator of Gaia way and Halacha path, for his own gain.

What Haman fails to understand, however, is that Yisrael is dispersed only in spatial terms. Yes they disagree on the ways of Halacha. It is true that people disagree and argue and enter into disputation, yet that is the surface structure adjusting to time and space. Underneath, deep in the Neshamah soul of sacred connection there is a oneness that is firm and flowing.

That Neshamah soul level is the direct and open thread, the sacred connect with the Source of Being. It is a bond so deep that some don't even recognize it as they focus only on the surface paradigm shifts. And yet, in those quiet moments of spirit questing, something that we may not have noticed becomes apparent; the spider web connection glistens. Indeed we see the truth of it when, at the end of the story, all peoples re-form. That is, they form again, accepting the potent potential of Holiness, of wholeness for ourselves and our world. In this story, that awareness is called Yisrael.

The frightening danger is our delusion that the 5-fold soul is, like the body, limited. That limitation is what the evil of Haman wants to exploit. That is why we need to discover and confront the Haman within us. Our bodies have limits and those limits are teaching devices for the soul. But the soul is limitless and always learning, growing and, if we listen carefully, teaching.

The beginning of the story tells how Mordechai the Jew saved the king from the two assassins Bigtan and Teresh. Naturally, we would expect the King to reward him for his deed, perhaps an honor, or at least recognition.

But things aren't quite that simple, for Mordechai is the Israel in humanity, it wants nothing but to be in contact with the ineffable name. It wants no personal gain; therefore you cannot give it any gift, for it has no other desire than oneness.

Thus, to our surprise, we read that it isn't Mordechai who is honored. The one who craves surface honors, Haman, the ego, the needy, the whiner; it is Haman who the King appoints as head of all the ministers. Haman gets total domination of the Kingdom and all are ordered to bow before him. The ego has now risen to frightening proportions.

Of all the people, only Mordechai sees through the facade and refuses to bow before anyone but the King (G). Mordechai represents the spiritual in us all. As plants are heliotropic, they point towards the sun, the human soul is Theo tropic always point toward, seeking out G’s light. Mordechai is the only one in the story who still remembers this powerful pointer, when the whole town of Shushan is bewildered and bedeviled. Even when his life is threatened, the hidden power of Mordechai chooses loyalty to the King, the source of all, the Wholly One of being over all else.

It is only through magnifying Haman's ego to this out of proportion level that the people could see the danger, could realize how right and righteous was Mordechai's way.

The difference between the road Haman takes and that of Mordechai is the core around which the story revolves.

Haman wants to exploit the King and use the authority to take over the Kingdom. His ego epitomizes the most vile force on the planet, the desire to rule the world at all cost, even that of the world’s destruction, even his own destruction.

Mordechai's only goal, on the other hand, is to unveil a true path in this world, to learn from the Wholly One of Being how to conduct himself for the betterment of the world and all who dwell there. Therefore he cannot be bribed in any way. He can stand at the King's castle and guard the gate while everyone bows before Haman. There is no material pay for his loyalty. Mordecai follows the Talmudic advice to serve a master without seeking reward. He knows in his holy optimism that the day will come when light will shine and truth be revealed. He also understands that he cannot impose his will upon others. And this too is his power.

Haman gets control of the Kingdom, precisely for the purpose of increasing his desires. The egoism is revealed as are the destructive forces that dwell within him. Haman decides to utilize the authority he's been given in order to carry out his plan to destroy his primary enemy – the Israel within.

Haman is then asked – what is to be done with the man the King holds dear? His ego being certain that it is him the King holds dear, he suggests that he be seated on a horse (the elevation of the 5 fold soul path, that inner force of humanity) and it be publicly declared: "Thus will be done with the man the King holds dear". But it is not the ego of Haman that is held dear but the straight path of the G seeker, Mordechai that is held high. It is Mordechai that is elevated. And Haman’s ego blinds him to the lesson. He continues his plot of ego gratification and destruction of anything that challenges it.

Haman carefully plans his actions, prepares the hangman's tree and the rope, confident that in a few moments, the power standing between him and his dream, will have been eliminated.

At this point in our tale, the unity of Israel the Yashar El path is revealed. For Esther the quiet, seeks the power to stand up to strength, to ignore authority. The people of Israel, the Yashar El seekers, pray for her path. Their collective prayer for the success of Esther's mission, representing the force of faith, puts the lie to Haman's belief in the devaluation of difference. One of his ego flaws is that he sees difference as separation. He believes that people with different paths are not aiming for the same holy space. He believes that he can separate, suppress and destroy diversity.

Esther is the powerful mythical heroine who enlightens the power of diversity as a force for unity. That power and awareness is the courage that allows her to address the King directly, which is one of the miracles of Purim. Prior to that, no one could or would address the King that way. Only the united spiritual support of the people, in prayer, and her great courage give her the necessary armor to come out of hiding (Heb: hEster means hidden) and into the presence of the King. She reveals the King's panim/essence of flow – to bestow on all humanity the great awareness of our potential. She, in facing the King, challenges us to share differences in love and harmony with none to make us afraid.

Only then does Haman (the egotistical dark force within humanity) discover the flaw in his dastardly deeds, but it is too late for him. Too late, does he discover that the purpose and process of humanity is the revelation of the hidden light, the truth hidden within our inner selves to enlighten our outer shells. Unlike G, who is Ehad, one without parts, we are Yahad, one made up of differences, we are made up of parts and each part is precious. From the learning and the sharing of the parts, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

The climax of the story occurs when the destructive sentence which Haman himself had passed on others is turned back upon himself.

The great battle of Haman (the ego) to rule over the Kingdom versus Mordechai, the desire to live in harmony, is engaged.

In our story, Israel represents the deeper soul desires of humanity to discover the King's path of possibilities and the possibility of paths, ways to reach out and ways to reach in.

In our story, Israel represents the desire in humanity to be in perpetual Yihud, contact with the Source of reality.

In our story Israel represents us all when we accept the challenges of life with the inner certainty that those challenges only rise up to reveal our path to the palace of the King.

Israel is us, when we remember the Source of our lives and strive to utilize every opportunity explore the path and to fortify the bond with G.

Israel is us, when we do not give way to despair even when facing grave difficulties along the way.

We become Israel when we finally see beyond the surface and seek the inner light, when we learn acceptance and awareness of the oneness of the different paths of life.

We become Israel when we turn concealment into revelation and write with our deeds the story of Mordechai and Esther.

Sukkot

FROM WHERE I SIT

My Dear Friends

There is something about building a Sukkah that opens the door to who we are. Our Sukkah building reveals the blueprints to our mind, our heart and our soul. Some people spend a great deal of money buying pre-fab Sukkot. They look at the directions and fit piece A into slot B. They put up the pre-painted fabric walls. Lastly they roll out the pre-fab Schach סכך (I so love that word), the vegetation that is the roof of our temporary dwelling. Voila, the Sukkah is complete. Every year when I wobble on the ladder, slam my thumb with the hammer and curse the stripped screw heads, I vow that next year I will buy a beautiful pre-fab Sukkah and make life easy on myself. But somehow, it does not ever seem to happen.

I like building my own. Sometimes my soul-partner helps and my daughter and son. It is a family enterprise and that adds meaning to an already meaningful connection. Building a Sukkah is a Mitzvah מצווה and Mitzvah means connection. Building a Sukkah is all about connections.

My friend Jon, who is a lot smarter than I am comes over to help. He has a tool box and a tape measure and apron for holding nails and screws and things. He sits with me to plan out the Sukkah. He plans, making notes and drawing designs. He writes down the material that I have to buy or he will donate the twine and screws and this year the webbing that he suggested is more eco-friendly and reusable. And then we set to work. Jon wants to put it together according to the plan, with strong clean lines that will create a beautiful and secure structure. I want to slap it together. After all, it only has to stay up for 8 days. He holds his heart and groans as I secure the beams haphazardly, rather than evenly. Each year I tell him the same story of my childhood Sukkah. Each year he has to teach me the names of the different roles that the 2x4s and 1x4s play. There are studs and rafters and beams and other things that I have already forgotten.

I ask “why?” a lot.

And we laugh a lot.

Because of the work and the family and the friends and the Mitzvah מצווה, Sukkot has been elevated on my hit parade of holidays.

For Jon we are building a dwelling, albeit a temporary one. The Sukkah is a dwelling place. It is a dwelling place for G. WAIT! Don’t dismiss that phrase. It is a dwelling place for G. We have always built incredible edifices in hopes of bringing that deep power, that Sacred Other into dwelling. We have built Temples and Synagogues and Shuls, all to hold the Shehina . Jon, whether in his consciousness or deeper, is building G’s house and he wants to “do it right”. What a wonderful soul challenge. If you were G’s contractor, what would you build? Would you build a citadel or summit, mansion or meeting hall? How would you build something that is inviting to G.? For some it might be a palace of ritual. By following ritual we can open ourselves to G’s dwelling, G’s Shehina. For other people an inviting dwelling place would be a Yeshiva where Torah is studied, Jewish issues discussed. Some would want a humble dwelling, shining with righteous action, fairness, compassion.

For my part, we are building a ‘tree-house’. I put up a Sukkah like I am a kid building his first tree-house. I want to build a tree house for G. I want to climb to my tree house on steps that mystically support my weight forcing me to concentrate and shed my baggage. I want to call out, in hallowed whisper, the secret password shared by all who also share deep philosophical questions of balance in the tree house. I want to climb and jump and laugh and learn the lessons of the tree house.

There are great lessons to be learned in the tree house, in the Sukkah too. They are the lessons taught by creatively understanding Halacha and history and the meaning of mystery. They are a hidden discussion with our souls and our soul-maker. They are coaching tips for us in regards to our interactions with each other and with ourselves.

Tree house/Sukkah lessons:
1. A Sukkah will not protect you from the rain. It will open you to the Sacred nature of nature
2. Be careful on what you lean, it is fragile. Like life, we have to act consciously and 'consciencely.'
3. Check how many walls you have put up. What do we want to keep in and what do we want to keep out. How big is our welcome mat and is it a heartfelt welcome mat.
4. Eat in the Sukkah. Food tastes better when shared with good friends and enlightened ancestors.
5. Sleep out in the Sukkah. There are good lessons on the wind as it breezed through the branches of our Schach סכך
6. Every once in a while you might have to prop something up. We need continually to examine our structures, the ones we build with our hand and the ones we build with our hearts.
7. Stop! Look up at the stars. That twinkling through the branches is there for a reason. Connect the dots.
8. Look at the shadows at your feet; let your imagination off leash. What do you see?
9. Always invite guests. It is merry and meaningful. Remember to invite the spirit guests, those who have built Sukkot before you. They are our inner teachers.
10. Putting it together yourself, with a friend is fun and it is fulfillng. It is heartful, soulful, full.

My family and friends come over. We build a Sukkah, a palace, a playhouse. And we laugh, and G gets a good dwelling place and a good ride.

I pray that all our Hagim are filled with laughter, love and meaning.

Hag Sameah

An Open Box: The moving non-movement!

My Dear Friends

On Erev Rosh HaShanah I began a trilogy of sermons that I called "The path less travelled." On that night I spoke of the origins of our people, our tribal path. On Rosh HaShanah day I continued with the tests and lessons of movement. As a people we have moved through time and space carrying our faith in our hearts and our heads and our hands. Movements were built as boxes to protect us and our sacred cargo. Movements were and are trail markers along the path less travelled. And movements were mechanisms for change.

But movements have drawbacks. No matter what the grand ideal, no matter how well the box of movements carried the changes we needed, no matter how well the box protected tradition, no matter how open the box was to change and modernity, eventually the lid on the box closed and change solidified and we forgot what we wanted to keep out and what we wanted to keep in. The usefulness of a box is in the opening and closing, the emptiness and the fullness.

The box which each movement created for us to carry along our path less travelled, became sacred in and of itself. The movements began to take themselves too seriously. Ego is the rust on the hinges of our box. "Our way is the only right way to Jew our lives," squeaks the movement as the lid on the box becomes harder and harder to open. "If you don't do it our way you are somehow missing the mark, not handling it correctly, less spiritual or less modern or just less." And the lid of the movement refuses to move.

The Orthodox tell the story of a husband and wife in a car. The husband is driving and the wife, leaning against her side of the car complains: "We used to sit together in the car your arm around me, me leaning into you, it was romantic. But we seem to have drifted apart." The husband replies: "What do you want from me. I am driving the car, I can't move. You are the one who has moved away!" This is how the Orthodox box sees Conservative and Reform and all liberal movements in Judaism. The Conservative box see the Orthodox as needlessly neglecting modernity, while Reform has forgotten and forsaken its roots.



I have shared with some of you that I come from a long line of Rabbis. My father, (זצ"ל) was very proud when I was ordained. I was visiting him that summer in Narraganset Pier in Rhode Island. On Shabbos we sought out the only synagogue in that small town. When we entered, my father proudly announced that he and I were Rabbis. The people there thought that it was fortuitous because their Rabbi was on vacation. They asked us to lead the service. As we walked to the Bimah I noticed a מחיצה separating the men's and women's section. The reader's table faced the ark not the congregation. We had entered an Orthodox synagogue and they were asking us to lead. My father had never led an Orthodox service and so it was left to me to lead most of the service. But at one point he whispered to me: "Let's just turn around and do this right!" Right for him was the Reform way.

Movements, each and every one of them have become like a box with a rusty hinge. Boxes are important tools on the path less travelled and we each need to have our boxes, they carry significant ideas and keep safe important ideals. The box gives shape and form and direction to our thoughts. But we should be wary of climbing into the box and we should never do all our thinking inside the box. The problem is that movements tend to box us in and box others out. And that is because we don't open our box enough, we don't examine enough or play enough with what's in the box. Carrying our movement box can make us comfortable but it also can make us, has made us complacent.

There is a tale told of a bejeweled box that was a treasure of an elderly couple. They kept it in a glass case for all to see. They would take it out and show it to special friends, on special occasions, but they never opened the box. When they passed on they left it to their children, who kept it on the mantel and told all their friends how it had been so special to their parents. When they passed on and left it to their children, the box got stuffed in a drawer somewhere. And when they passed on, the box somehow was lost. The box is the movements and the hidden treasure within is our Judaism, our Jewing life to the fullest.

I love boxes, they proclaim neatness and orderliness, a place for everything and everything in its place. My favorite box is a replica of a tinderbox, carried by the mountain men about 150 years ago. I enjoy the firm pop as the hinged lid opens wide or closes down. My box is small in all its brassy glory. My box is the protector of small fragile objects. It has carried all that is miscellaneous, all that has nowhere else to go, all that is important, irreplaceable yet unplaceable.

So tonight I wish to offer a solution to the rusted box of movements, the box that is neglected and which contains the sacred and hidden light that we might call Moshiah consciousness. Tonight I wish to share with you a new box, clean, bright and brassy. It is a thoroughly modern box, a box that will carry us comfortably into modernity and yet the box is hinged with tradition carrying our sacred treasures along the path less travelled.

This box that I offer contains a non-movement, that is always moving. This box is a paradigm shift for movements and for individuals. I even have a catchy name for our new non-movement, a catchy name for our new box. I call this moving non-movement 'Reframing'.

When we reframe we see things anew. We see them in a light that we have not utilized before. Reframing how we move on our path less travelled will enlighten our path with the Ohr Zarua, the original hidden light of creation and creativity.

But as with all things of worth, it takes some work. And for our box to be useful to us we must use it, constantly adjusting, adding and subtracting from our box, rearranging and handling the contents.

Our reframing box requires each of us to fill and empty and refill it with questions to be asked, and actions to be quested. What studies will you put in our reframers' box. What traditions would you keep alive in our box as we wind our way down the path less travelled

Who is interested by history. Did you know that the Menorah is Judaism's oldest symbol and that it stems from a sage plant found in Israel. The name of that plant is Moriah, which means G's guidance and is related to the word for our Sacred Guide, Torah. How about the fact that two thousand years ago when we were forced from our land, the Romans, to add insult to injury, named our holy homeland after our worst enemies.

The people who invaded our coastlands of Ashkalon and Ashdod and Gaza were people who we would not even call by name, we simply called them the invaders. Today we mis-transliterate it as Philistine.
In Hebrew the word for invader is Paleshet. The plural is Palashtim. The Romans renamed Israel using that very word, the word celebrating their invasion of our sacred homeland. In Latin the term is Palastina what people now call Palestine.

History enlightens our path, the path less travelled.

Who would be willing to keep our sacred tongue alive, who would be willing to learn a little more about Hebrew putting it in our sacred reframer's box. Just the Alef Bet, or a few more words of worth. For Hebrew holds the secrets of history and poetry and philosophy and mystery.

What is the fourth letter of the Hebrew Alef Bet. It was Dag, which meant fish and the original pictograph was that of a fish. But we changed it when those same invaders conquered that spit of land on the southern part of Israel on the Mediterranean. They worshiped a god of fishing and its name was Dagon. We changed a letter of our Alef Bet from Dag, fish, to ד, door because it was too close to idolatry.

The א, the first letter of our Alef Bet is silent and yet contains within it the secret of the sacred name of G, the name we are prohibited from pronouncing.

What traditions would you carry in your box for a year to guarantee their survival and increase your spiritual awareness. Every tradition in Judaism has a history that will hold your heart and a mystery that will bring heaven to earth. Would you take 10 minutes a day, 6 days a week for a year and lay תפילין? It would change your life and add a little light on the our sacred path, the path less travelled. Within the leather box that is תפילין is the six word mystical phrase of oneness that we repeat throughout the day. We call it the שמע and the translation that we read is every week is weak. Sometime we will sit together and you will create your own translation that far surpasses what we read in our prayer books.

What of שבת, is that something to carry in our Reframers' box. What people call the 10 commandments are written twice in Torah and each refers to Shabbat a little differently. In one case Shabbat we are told, should be Shamored, guarded. In the other case we are reminded to זכור, remember Shabbat.
What is the difference. We guard Shabbat by living it, by doing it, by being it. How we do that in our Reframers' box will be different for each of us. But one element is the same. We will not allow the weekday, workday, mundane day into our sacred bubble of time. For some, no electricity or driving. For others, we travel for sacred activities not for shopping. But for all, Shamoring Shabbos is family time, prayer time study time, a time of holy rest. That is how we שמור. But if we cannot שמור, guard by living it fully, we can זכור, keep Shabbos in our hearts and heads and hands.

When our son, Ronin was in high school he took part in school plays. Needless to say, he was the best actor there. But it required him to perform on Friday nights. His answer to this challenge was to take a couple of candle stubs some Hallah and grape juice with him. At the appropriate time he would slip away and make the blessings. Since some of the other actors were Jewish they began to go with him. Eventually even the non-Jews came to see what was happening. On one such occasion Ronin was in the Sound of Music. What he told me painted a picture in my mind that still warms my heart. Members of the cast, in costume took part in the short celebration of Shabbat. In costume!!! I picture a group of costumed nuns, and Nazis standing around helping usher in Shabbat with blessing. If we cannot שמור we can choose to זכור and that will raise the sacred sparks.

Every תורה is hand written, copied from the one before. It has been so for over 2000 years. Hidden within Torah are shards of that original light that can brighten our world and our world view. One Shabbos our grandson Gage, looked up from the dining room table and asked me to tell him a story about that week's Torah POTION. Torah is a sacred Potion that we should keep in our reframer's box. Would you be willing to study a little Torah every week. Would you consider to look at a small part of the Torah potion under a new light? Would you carry that sacred light in your tinder box of reframing.

I am not asking that we do everything, that we study everything. I am asking that each one of us opens our box and decides what Jewing to put into our personal Reframer's box. We can try things out to see what fits and what comforts and compels us. But we must try or the box becomes just another bit of clutter in our lives.

The Reframer's box must have oiled hinges from constant use, opening and closing, putting in and pulling out. The contents must be shiny with wear. In this way our path less travelled remains a path worth travelling.

My friends our moving non-movement box of light, our reframer's box calls out to us with the shofar's blast and the whispered warning. “Open and examine and play with what is in this box but never climb into this box.” The box is for carrying our sacred tools, tinder and char, flint and steel, creating holy sparks. It is not for show and it is not a place to hide from modernity nor from Mashiah consciousness. We should think outside the box, live and love outside the box. But we should never abandon our reframer's box. A box is not a home it is our sandbox, our tool box, our toy box, our X box. We need to live with it and play with it, examining the contents adding new sacred tools and putting others aside. And we do this to enlighten our path with holy consciousness, our path, the path less travelled.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Tests and Lessons on the Path Less Travelled

My Dear Friends:
Last night I spoke to you of the warrior's path, the path less travelled. Today I speak to you of what has informed and formed our path less travelled. They are the tests and lessons.

I was once asked to give a graduation speech for an Episcopal parochial school. Faced with this daunting task I faced the kids and suggested to them that they were very fortunate to be in a school environment. This was received with barely disguised scorn. Undaunted I continued by saying that in school we study our lessons and then we take our tests. Yet when we enter the real world that cushion is removed. I pointed out to them that in real life, the tests come first and if we are lucky or wise, the lessons come after. For life is a series of tests and lessons.

And who better than we to exemplify this maxim. We who call ourselves the Chosen people, we who say so often in our services "אשר בחר בנו" "Who has chosen us!" But beware of translations, for the same word that means chosen means tested. We were chosen to be tested.

It has always been so for our people and our path. It has been the tests that have lit the lamp of learning and the lessons that have fanned the flames of growth among our tribe. And tribe we are, no not tribe but an amphictyony a tribe of tribes. Our tribal light was lit by Avraham and Sarah and it has enlightened our path ever since. When crushed in the darkness of the Egyptian night Moshe found a bush burning in the wilderness and led us into the light. When we returned to our spirit homeland of Yisrael, we took the sage plant there, the מוריה or teaching plant and it became the blueprint for the Menorah that was continually lit in the Temple.
And when that light was extinguished by the conquering hordes of Babylonia, a group of wise scribes carried a tiny light into the wilderness of exile. There by the rivers of Babylon, they kept the light lit with prayer and study and Torah sharing and the synagogue experience was born. We returned and rebuilt and relit the Temple Menorah but the Ner Tamid that tiny eternal light that we carried into exile burned bright in Synagogai, small communal meeting places of the people, with services mirroring the Temple service but without the pomp and circumstance of animal sacrifice. People met and prayed and chanted and read Torah and fanned the flames of faith. In so doing they added movement to Judaism.

Temple life was the province of the priests, spiritual descendants of Tzadok the high priest in the times of King David. They became known as the Sadducees. The Scribes of which I spoke, the learned ones who cared for the Ner Tamid of Synagogue communal life became the חכמים the ones who pursue wisdom. The Sadducees dismissed them as Pharisees or the ones who separate themselves. With the tests of Roman oppression new lessons, new movements kept our light alive. The Essenes moved from Jerusalem disgusted with Temple practices that they considered corrupt and with the Roman occupation which was oppressive. They left the aesthetic world for the ascetic wilderness of the Dead Sea area. And they kept the light kindled late into the night as they copied parts of our sacred guide and mystical works that they hid in jars in caves. We have the remnant of their light in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Others felt that the only way to oil our lamps was with blood. Their movement was called the קנאים or Zealots, some taking their name from the word for knives in Latin, they were the Sicarii and their lamp can be found in the ruins of Masada where they found their final stand. Some believe that their ranks were complimented by members of another movement that of the Jesus followers for they certainly began as a movement within Judaism.

But the path of Jews and Christians diverged, as our poem says in a yellow wood, the yellow wood of exile from the land of Israel. These were the ancient movements of light, the eternal light that has lit up our lives for thousands of years.
But it is the movement of the חכמים the sages, who we call the Rabbis, who made Judaism portable and potable in the arid soil of Europe. The Rabbis can be called a movement for they moved us forward and kept the Ner Tamid lit along the path less travelled. Rabbinic Judaism became the movement of the Jewish people. But as happens with movements others grew up within and around this movement. During the enlightened times in Europe and even in the dark night of the dark ages movements of philosophy built fires bright in the minds of our people. Philosophers from Albo to Zunz fueled the fire of Jewish learning and Jewish spirit exploration, accepting the tests and learning the lessons.

And in the darker times came the need for us to confront deeper demands, the souls scream in the night and Jewish mysticism surfaced and resurfaced like a firebrand brandished against the dark. The enigma is that Philosophy was for the learned and yet open to all. Mysticism was for the masses but open only to a few. Philosophical texts and tests were learned lessons for any who could spend the time. Mysticism was a flame that enlightened or burned in the soul, restricted to those grounded males over the age of 40, married with children. And the tests of anti-Semitism, overt or genteel brought forth the lessons taught in the bosom of synagogues and Yeshivas of the philosophical and mystical movements of the day.
And then, when the wonder of the reformation and the renaissance began to enlighten the dark days of Europe, fresh movements within Judaism continued to light our way on this new turn of the path less travelled. The movements reflected tests taken and lessons learned. The first of these modern movements was חסידות. חסידות, which could be translated as "followers of the compassionate path" began in a sacred bonfire of joy. Singing, dancing, chanting and teaching, all in joy, was their path. The first Hasidic Rebbe was Yisrael Ben Eliezer better known as the Baal Shem Tov. Torah commentary burned bright, unfettered in their free-hand style that celebrated the mystical meanings to each portion, each sentence, each word, each letter of Torah. Noah's ark becomes a metaphor for the Jewish people, the window being the place for the G-field to flow in to those Jewing within the ark. And while the tales of the Hasidim imbued our hearts with a warm glow, there arose a movement of opposition. They were called the מתנגדים "those who oppose" for they opposed the radical hippie free thinking of the Hasidim. Such has always been the case.

As science and philosophy found their footing during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, the ghetto walls came tumbling down and Jewish life was bombarded with the winds of outside influence. It could have been that the sacred light of Judaism would have been extinguished but yet again movements fueled our internal flames against the brisk breeze of modernity. The first of these movements included a hardy group of Reformers who translated Torah and Tfilah, our sacred guide and our sacred service into the vernacular, something that had not happened in almost two thousand years when our Torah was translated into the vernacular Aramaic as was the Kaddish prayer the way we read it to this very day. The Reformers, who called their movement, aptly enough, the Reform movement, spoke to universal ideals of morality and ethics. They pointed to our prophets and our Torah as a divinely inspired guide to ethical life. Rituals were for the furtherance of ethics or could be dismissed as we would discard green wood when building our fire bright. Their most famous early leader was Isaac Meyer Wise who, when he came to this country introduced "Minhag America," meaning the practice of Jews in America. We were to be Americans who are Jews, American Jews. Services held in English, gone the relics of Talit and Kipah and Tfilin as anachronisms of an ancient time. And again when this movement came to the fore there was a reaction among our people. A group of people argued that Judaism cannot be molded to suit the person rather the person had to be molded to the doxology, the belief of our Judaism. They felt that there was only one 'ortho' that is 'correct' 'doxa' 'belief'. Thus was introduced the Orthodox movement and the leader was Samson Rafael Hirsch. He decried the release of ritual that was part of the Reform path. Two movements diverged in a yellow wood, polar opposites both begun in Germany both which added light to the Jewish path. Each with vastly different views of how to light that path less travelled.
And not long after that yet another modern movement comes into being. These people wanted to conserve Judaism, they thought that the Reformers were throwing the baby out with the bathwater and that the Orthodox were not entering boldly and brightly into the dawn of the 19th century. In the United States they are most famous for bolting from the Trefe Banquet in Cincinnati in 1883, in which Kashrut was either woefully ignored or wantonly flouted. When the Reformers signed on to the Pittsburgh platform negating the tribal aspects of Judaism and relegating ritual to a small lamp in a tiny corner of our path, the Conservative movement in America blazed forth with leaders such as Abraham Joshua Heschel. They struggled with the light, discussing and interpreting but rarely discarding Halacha, Jewish Law.
But all movements, as we have seen, spawn other movements and there grew up in this country a movement that wanted to reconstruct the reason for the ritual. Their movement teaches that Halacha, Jewish Law has a vote but not a veto.
They call themselves the Reconstructionist movement and their founder was Mordecai Menahem Kaplan. He viewed our light as the light of civilization rather than the torch of a tribal movement. When asked to explain reconstuctionist Judaism, in a moment of humor, I answered that it is like Conservative Judaism but when the Rabbi finishes his sermon, the congregation has 20 minutes for rebuttal. Reconstructionist Judaism shines a light on the democratic nature of our Jewish tradition.
To be sure other movements have enlightened our path or burned a smoky flame blurring our way. We have Karaites and Sabbatians, Frankists and Humanists. The Havurah movement has helped bank the flame of our Jewish light in small communities and small gatherings. And yet there is another movement that needs to be acknowledged and that is the torch brought to bear on our path by a Rabbi ordained by Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson the Lubavitcher Rebbe who brought Hasidut to the United States. The founder's name is Zalman Schachter known simply as Reb Zalman. His ideal was and is to renew the light of Jewing in our souls and his movement is called Renewal. Renewal seeks to bring the blend of Hasidut openness and mystical teachings into the modern realm complimented by the wisdom of all faiths, practices and paths. Jewish Renewal endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with mystical, Hasidic, musical and meditative practices.
Our movements, all of them, reflect the lessons learned from the tests of pogroms and ghettos, renaissance moments, genteel anti-Semitism, the iniquities of inquisitions and the Age of Enlightenment that brightened the landscape of Europe. Each movement has brought tinder and kindling, wick and wax to light the path less travelled. Each movement, forged in the furnace of tests and lessons offers the light of those lessons for us and we are the better for them.

Let no one decry any of these movements, rather we should learn and grow from each of them, for they contribute to the light of our path, the path less travelled.