“…Torah’s list of stops along our journey is a metaphor for the journey of an individual soul. The forty-two stops evoke the twists and turns of every human life: leaving Mitzrayim / places of constriction, seeking sustenance and purpose and our hopes fulfilled. And for us as for our ancient ancestors, the trajectory of the journey probably won’t be linear…”
July is upon us. All winter long I anticipate summer’s long daylight: the luscious green curves of our hillsides, how the pollinator garden behind the synagogue becomes a riot of color and leaf. And we’re here! We made it! This place where we are blessed to live is beautiful in all seasons, but this is the season I love the most. And… spiritual life never stands still. The wheel is always already turning toward the holidays to come.
“…When we despair we need someone to walk with us, to feel with us, and to remind us that when we feel most stuck, change can be waiting in the wings – even (or especially) if we can’t see it….”
“We have fallen into the place where everything is music.” These are words from the Sufi mystic poet Rumi, whose work I love. In the translations I’ve seen, he is one of the most profound spiritual poets there is. For another version of those lines, here’s how western-Mass-based folksinger Kris Delmhorst sings them: “Now we’ve come to the place where everything is music — everything is music, (so) let it play!”
“‘And God spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai,’ — the place of revelation; ‘in the ohel mo’ed,’ — both the tent of community meeting, and a sacred fixed point in time. That’s where this verse places us: in the wilderness, in the middle of nowhere — which is where God speaks (or maybe where we hear), where we’re receptive as satellite dishes, at the nexus of holy space and holy time…”
“…A northern Berkshire host team of volunteers has come together to support a young family fleeing from Haiti, a married couple with two young children under the age of three…”
“This week’s Torah portion, Emor, gives us a roadmap for the spiritual flow of the Jewish year….”
Late this month we’ll reach the festival of Shavuot. When the Temple stood Shavuot was one of the Shalosh Regalim, the three big pilgrimage-festivals when we would travel en masse to Jerusalem to make offerings at the Temple. Shavuot is the culmination of the seven weeks of counting the Omer, and was once a harvest festival. (It still is, among Jews who farm.) But today Shavuot is best known as the holiday when we celebrate receiving Torah at Sinai.
“…Wise and compassionate stewardship of our land has been a Jewish value ever since the Garden of Eden. In this era of climate crisis, it’s important to care not only for our grounds, but also for the local ecosystem of which we are a part.
Here at CBI we’re doing a few different things to live out this Jewish value…”
This guest post is the D’var Torah that CBI member and cantorial soloist Ziva Larson offered at Shabbat and Pesach Morning Services on Saturday, April 8, 2023.
