Connection to God
I have noticed that many people think of prayer as a periodic activity, but truly religious and spiritual people of whatever conviction view prayer as a continuous process. Formalized praying times are focused on specific, communal prayer activities. But other times, even stressful times, prayers run in the background like a tape, keeping God in mind and attached to the spiritual in each moment. That is the reason, I believe, for thrice daily formal Jewish prayers and 100 blessings a day. The 100 blessings force the religious Jew to constantly keep in mind whether the experience at hand demands a specific blessing, meaning always asking the question: In what way is this moment connected to God? Those who meditate maintain the same process, only differently, and often more individually than communally. Catholics and Jews have more formalized liturgies. But in all cases the connection to the divine is not a matter of on again off again, but, rather, more intense and in the foreground, less intense and in the background, a sine curve of connectivity to the ever present divine.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Friday, December 26, 2014
Hanukkah 2014, December 19th, 2014
Among the sacred myths of Jewish history is the Talmudic story of Hanukkah about the oil lasting for 8 days when there was only enough sacred oil for a single day. A second sacred myth, also attached to Hanukkah, is that the Maccabees won the war against the Syrian Greeks. While both may be spiritually true, neither is historically accurate. The Talmudic story was created to give credit to God regarding the rededication of the Temple and the resumption of the Temple sacrifices, rather than giving credit for the military victory to the Hasmoneans. Second, the war continued after the Maccabees succeeded in removing the Syrian Greeks from the Temple Mount, and the war lasted another 2 decades plus. So why do we celebrate? Hanukkah commemorates the first war for religious freedom. It recognizes the victory of the Judaizers, those who would preserve Judaism, over the Hellenizers, those who preferred Greek culture. But one more unnoted historical innovation also occurred, more important than either. During the period of the Hasmonean dynasty, because the High Priesthood became illegitimate (the wrong people served as High Priest), a small group of Jews removed themselves to live according to their own innovative ideas of Judaism near the north western corner of the Dead Sea. We know them as the Essenes. This group of Jews, frustrated with the Temple cult that no longer represented the people before God, chose to express their spirituality through purity rites and, most creatively and importantly, introduced text study as a means to contacting the divine. This innovation, that studying holy texts enables the preservation of God's covenant, saved Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple and changed all of Western civilization. After Qumran and the Essenes, study of sacred texts enabled the democratization of Judaism: anyone can learn to read and study God's word (you need not be a scribe or priest), bringing us into direct connection with the divine. The basis of Judaism for the last 2 millennia was created and rooted in the Hasmonean period, and that, in and of itself, is a reason to celebrate!
Among the sacred myths of Jewish history is the Talmudic story of Hanukkah about the oil lasting for 8 days when there was only enough sacred oil for a single day. A second sacred myth, also attached to Hanukkah, is that the Maccabees won the war against the Syrian Greeks. While both may be spiritually true, neither is historically accurate. The Talmudic story was created to give credit to God regarding the rededication of the Temple and the resumption of the Temple sacrifices, rather than giving credit for the military victory to the Hasmoneans. Second, the war continued after the Maccabees succeeded in removing the Syrian Greeks from the Temple Mount, and the war lasted another 2 decades plus. So why do we celebrate? Hanukkah commemorates the first war for religious freedom. It recognizes the victory of the Judaizers, those who would preserve Judaism, over the Hellenizers, those who preferred Greek culture. But one more unnoted historical innovation also occurred, more important than either. During the period of the Hasmonean dynasty, because the High Priesthood became illegitimate (the wrong people served as High Priest), a small group of Jews removed themselves to live according to their own innovative ideas of Judaism near the north western corner of the Dead Sea. We know them as the Essenes. This group of Jews, frustrated with the Temple cult that no longer represented the people before God, chose to express their spirituality through purity rites and, most creatively and importantly, introduced text study as a means to contacting the divine. This innovation, that studying holy texts enables the preservation of God's covenant, saved Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple and changed all of Western civilization. After Qumran and the Essenes, study of sacred texts enabled the democratization of Judaism: anyone can learn to read and study God's word (you need not be a scribe or priest), bringing us into direct connection with the divine. The basis of Judaism for the last 2 millennia was created and rooted in the Hasmonean period, and that, in and of itself, is a reason to celebrate!
Parashah Vayigash December 26, 2014: After Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and they return to their father to tell him that Joseph is not only alive but the vice-Regent of Egypt, the Torah says, "... Jacob's spirit revived." But the Onkolos Targum (1st-2nd century c.e.) translates, "... the prophetic spirit rested upon Jacob their father." And Rashi (11th century) comments, "The presence of God (Shekhinah) that had departed from him came to rest upon him." The Avot D'Rabbi Natan (2nd - 3rd century c.e.) comments, "The Holy Spirit that had departed from him rested upon him at that time." The Torah Temima, quoting Maimonides Shemoneh P'rakim (Eight Chapters, chapter 7, 12th century) "explains the matter of the withdrawal of prophecy from Jacob during the time of his mourning [at the reported death of Joseph 20 years earlier] according to what is written in B. Shabbat 30b 'prophecy only occurs in times of simcha (joy),' and now it has returned to him [Jacob]."
American Jewry went into deep mourning subsequent to the Holocaust, and a reactive phase of protecting the new Jewish State of Israel from 1948 until 2 years after the Six Day War (1969). At the General Assembly of Federations in 1969 a group of rebellious college students demanded more of a focus on essential issues in the United States, like education. With the rise of interfaith marriage statistics in the 1980s and through today, it seems that Jews and Judaism persistently focus on calamity as the motivator of religious zeal. But we see in this parashah and the Talmud that God's spirit only rests on those who experience joy.
Jacob had descended into a two decade grieving over the loss of his favorite son. He failed to embrace life, and as a result prophecy left him. Perhaps the American Jewish community needs to learn the lesson of the Torah, Talmud, Maimonides, and Chabad: that we cannot motivate a creative, responsive Judaism in grief and calamity. Rather, Judaism must concern itself primarily with the joy of living, and seeing God's presence in that joy.
Jewish life can no longer focus on "They persecuted us; we won; let's eat." Instead, the spirituality of the everyday, the joys of each moment given to breathe, love, give, experience friendship, exercise, raise others' spirits, etc must be the focus of our prayers and our spirituality. No creative religious tradition can focus primarily on the negatives in life and expect to remain both vital and popular. Particularly among America's Jews, that have so much to celebrate, the presence of God in the daily happiness of living should be our primary concern. Practice spreading joy, and thanking God in each happy moment. Then let us find the joy not only in the moments of revival, like Jacob, but in the less obvious moments of worry. For life itself is a blessing, and every new day an opportunity to become a blessing in others' lives.
American Jewry went into deep mourning subsequent to the Holocaust, and a reactive phase of protecting the new Jewish State of Israel from 1948 until 2 years after the Six Day War (1969). At the General Assembly of Federations in 1969 a group of rebellious college students demanded more of a focus on essential issues in the United States, like education. With the rise of interfaith marriage statistics in the 1980s and through today, it seems that Jews and Judaism persistently focus on calamity as the motivator of religious zeal. But we see in this parashah and the Talmud that God's spirit only rests on those who experience joy.
Jacob had descended into a two decade grieving over the loss of his favorite son. He failed to embrace life, and as a result prophecy left him. Perhaps the American Jewish community needs to learn the lesson of the Torah, Talmud, Maimonides, and Chabad: that we cannot motivate a creative, responsive Judaism in grief and calamity. Rather, Judaism must concern itself primarily with the joy of living, and seeing God's presence in that joy.
Jewish life can no longer focus on "They persecuted us; we won; let's eat." Instead, the spirituality of the everyday, the joys of each moment given to breathe, love, give, experience friendship, exercise, raise others' spirits, etc must be the focus of our prayers and our spirituality. No creative religious tradition can focus primarily on the negatives in life and expect to remain both vital and popular. Particularly among America's Jews, that have so much to celebrate, the presence of God in the daily happiness of living should be our primary concern. Practice spreading joy, and thanking God in each happy moment. Then let us find the joy not only in the moments of revival, like Jacob, but in the less obvious moments of worry. For life itself is a blessing, and every new day an opportunity to become a blessing in others' lives.
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