Creating the Jewels of Elul

As a world community, we just finished watching the Olympic Games.  (And I am so glad they have finished, because it means I no longer have to stay up late to watch the decathlon finals or amazing diving or gymnastic glory). In a flash of triumph – even those who just made it to the track or swimming pool – created a lifetime’s worth of memories that should make each athlete proud.  Not everyone can say he or she was an Olympic athlete.  Absent from these brief moments of splendor that we witnessed, however, were all the reps and training and practice and trials that each individual had to go through in order to make it to this highest stage of athletic competition.

            This weekend, we enter the month of Elul – the season that leads us to the High Holy Days.  It is traditionally the time in which we start preparing ourselves for the potential to be spiritually transformed during our time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – cleansed of the baggage of this past year and lightened as we take on the challenges and opportunities to face us in this next.  We strive to have our own moments of glory as we stand before God and, perhaps even more importantly, ourselves, and declare, “I have done all I can to put last year behind me, let me approach this year with a clean slate.” 

                       

Our scholars remind us that this is the time of year for us to do the hard work that allows us to have a meaningful High Holy Day experience.  Now is the time to reach out to those we love and ask forgiveness, to confront issues that are hanging over us and move beyond them.  Now is the time to notice the ways in which our world is unjust and how we as individuals are contributing to the problems that plague our communities, so we can begin to shift our patterns.  Now is the time to deeply ask ourselves if we are living up to our own expectations for who we want to be and start re-aligning our choices and commitments to bring us closer to our ideals. 

It amazes me how quickly summer can fly past us.  In a blink of an eye, at TBO, we have gone from the last day of religious school past the Olympic games and back into the very exciting time of getting ready to welcome back all our wonderful youth whom we’ve missed over these past few months.  Blink again, and Yom Kippur will be over. Let us not just fly through on autopilot, living out what life gives us instead of setting out each day with intention.  No athlete accidentally ended up on an Olympic team.  May we each put the time and efforts now to discover the Jewels of Elul,* being able to have our own moving ceremonies during this High Holy Day season – may they be holidays of gold for us all.

-          Rabbi Ari N. Margolis

Parashat R’eih

* To help us with our Elul efforts, click the link above to find daily inspirational thoughts or subscribe to daily emails that will help lead us into our High Holy Days.

The Olympic Spirit of Shema

SHEMA, Yisrael! Adonai, Eloheinu. Adonai Echad.

Hear/Listen, O Israel! Adonai is our God. Adonai is One.

            This week, our world’s attention has been drawn to a central focus– the Olympic games.  These celebrations of athleticism and sportsmanship (ideally) mark for us the coming together of people who ordinarily would have no opportunities or desires to stand side-by-side. American women shared a soccer field with the women from North Korea.  An Israeli swimmer shared a pool with a Palestinian swimmer.  Even LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant are sharing a basketball court in harmony, under the tutelage of local legend Mike Krzyzewski!

            It is most appropriate that our Torah portion this week brings forth our central blessing – the Shema.  With its theme of unity and interconnection, these words, like the Olympic games, remind us of how we are all bound together.  The wisdom and power of this blessing, however, come from the opening of our prayer – Shema – a word that many scholars have concluded means both “listen” and “hear” at the same time.  Only through enacting Shema, opening ourselves to hearing others nearby and honestly listening – openly, without agenda or ego, seeking to learn and not just to make our next point – do we find that place of connection to others through which we understand what it is to be a part of God’s One-ness, echad. 

            We are called upon to be witnesses through this blessing, and every Torah scroll and mezuzah in existence reminds us of this point as the final letters in the first and last words of the prayer are written much larger than the rest of the phrase, forming the Hebrew word, Eid, witness. 

In our world today, especially in our political discourse, there is not enough listening that happens.  All too often politicians, public figures, corporations, religious figureheads, and countless other leaders speak without ever truly listening to any opinion we do not wish to hear.  Without listening, nothing can penetrate the wisdom and conviction of the individual.  But such a state of existence is exactly opposite the oneness of God – it only escalates the oneness of isolation and individualism. 

           

      May we each allow this week’s Torah portion to inspire us to seek opportunities to truly listen to and openly hear other opinions in our midst.  Let us not reject wisdom that comes our way merely because of its source.  As we watch the Olympic games, let us not get caught up solely in the celebration of those who are faster, higher, and stronger (which is fun, don’t get me wrong).  Let us open our hearts and minds to the recognition that many of the seemingly intractable issues in our world are put aside for the chance to be a part of something as big and incredible as the Olympics.  As such, how much the more so should we recognize that it is possible to find and seek peace in our world and communities.  All we have to do is start with Shema.

Rabbi Ari N. Margolis

V’etchanan 5772