2018 - Heeding The Call: A Rosh Hashanah Reflection

The High Holidays are upon us and although I have not kept in touch much (since I am still healing from my concussion) I feel compelled to write something… to share… to connect….

I was asked today, “What is the essence of Rosh Hashana?”  I think that I answer it differently every year, perhaps even every day. This is how I am answering it today.

The part in the prayer service that is unique to Rosh Hashana is the addition within the Musaf prayer (the service that follows the morning prayers). In it we find these 3 central points:

1 -  Malchiyot –Kingship – Anointing God as our king 

2 -  Zichronot – Remembrance – Remember our deep connection to Divine 

3 -  Shofrot – Shofar – The call to connect.

As a child I was taught that there is no king without a kingdom, therefore on the anniversary of the human birth (the 6^thday of creation) we humans crown God as our king. We pronounce that loud and clear for all to hear, and we remember that we are God’s subjects; we do that with the blowing of the Shofar.

In today’s day and age, when monarchs are mostly figureheads, what is the essence of Malchiyot? What is the message that we are embracing?

Perhaps on the first day of the New Year we are invited to Remember our shared humanity. As the lyrics of the famous song* "What if God was one of us…  just a stranger on the bus....”  perhaps this new kingdom is God revealing Godself as one of us, a stranger on the bus, all of us, trying to make our way home.

Perhaps we are being asked to step into our humanity, to understand our immense power and our deep vulnerability. To declare all of it, One - To ourselves and to each other. Can we step into the reality that we do not have all the power, do not need to control, and that we are being held by the humanity we share? I believe we can, when we have the courage to REMEMBER to look into each other’s eyes and see ourselves and each other as Divine.  

How do we come together? Perhaps when we hear the call.  Sometimes as a whisper… sometimes the blast of the Shofar. 

May we continue to remember our Humanness– our power and our vulnerability, our shared pain and ability to heal.

As this New Year beckons – let us all be blessed with health, happiness, joy, stability, prosperity, abundance, connection, love and all that we desire.

Shana Tova u’Metuka

k’Siva v’Chasima Toyva

Happy and Healthy Sweet New Year

Chani

*song written by Eric Bazilian and covered by various singers

2018 - Simplifying Our Lives: A Passover Reflection

It has been 9 months since I was hit in the head through no fault of my own. I have been suffering from Post Concussion Syndrome. My symptoms creep up often and I have no control over when they come, how long or how often they occur. What this situation has birthed is a new me, someone who like our ancestors has picked up and moved into a new unknown land.

In this land of wilderness I am learning a lot… about myself, my family, who my support is, letting go, being gentle with myself, acknowledging my limitations, and most of all, asking for help.

I am still learning about the messiness of living with an injury that no one can see, about the understanding that healing is a lot about finding the right help on this journey where I often take 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.

Last week, I had the privilege of participating in a Women’s Seder and witnessing a beautiful exchange:

Rabbi Rachel Steiner asked why we eat Matzo on Passover. Many came up with some insightful answers.  Afterwards, Rabbi Steiner responded something like this. Matzo allows us to let go.  It is the simplest form. It doesn’t rise, it doesn’t puff up, It reminds us what is truly important: to let go of expectation.

I sat back and began to think about this past year… the way I am letting go of the Chometz (leavened bread) in my life. Over and over I am saying “No” to things to which I would have said “Yes.” in the past. I am donating to charity items that I have held onto out of guilt or obligation.

I now guard my energy as the sacred commodity that it is. I am noticing what is important to me. I’m discriminating about what is worthy of my time, attention and space in my mind and in my home. I observe what I can let go of for now, and what and who I need to let go of permanently.  I have been living a life where spiritual “Matzo” is my daily sustenance.

There is a tradition to shake one’s pockets out before Passover, getting rid of all the crumbs that have accumulated in one’s garment over the course of the year. Crumbs, tiny pieces of leavened bread, of puffiness, of making things bigger or more extravagant then they need to be, that have infiltrated into the pockets of our pants, skirts, suits, dresses, jackets and coats.           

What would you like to simplify in your life? How can you incorporate that? What are your crumbs, the tiny pieces that get stuck in places they don’t enrich your life? How can you allow yourself to be more vulnerable with others? How can you be a kinder, gentler, and more loving version to the amazing individual that you are?

 I hope that this year, Passover is all that it needs to be for all of us. May we find a way out of our own Mitzrayim (narrow places). May we let go of the leavenings that weigh us down, and may we shake the crumbs from the places where they have crept into.

Blessings

A Kashering Fraylichen Pessach (Yiddish)

Chag Kosher V’Samayach (Hebrew)

Happy Passover 

and to our friends celebrating Easter, Happy Easter.

Chani

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