Theme for Rabbi’s Drashot
High Holy Days 5775 2014
Rabbi Alicia Magal
Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley
New
Year 5775 September 24-25, 2014
My Words on Connection - Kesher
Overview: CONNECTION with oneself,
family, circle of community, Israel, the world, God, Shema Israel. – knots, loops, knitting, unraveling. Connection with soul.
Erev Rosh Hashanah - Wednesday night, September 24, 2014
My theme for these High Holy days is
Connection – in Hebrew, the word is KESHER, which can also mean something that
is tied, or a knot.
Ilaine
Packman loaned me a fascinating book on sailing and showed me a display of
different knots used for securing sails, mooring a boat to a dock, and many
other uses. Each kind of knot has a
specific purpose, a slip knot needs to allow for movement and adjustment; a slippery reef knot is good for furling a
sail, clove hitch is used to tie a line to a piling, bowline is easy and never
slips or jams, sheet bend is an excellent way to tie two lines of different
sizes or textures together, etc. …so many types of knots for each type of use.
There are
other examples of useful tying-together of strings, ropes, fibers, or wool.
This year for the very first time I am learning to knit. Many of you know that our daughter Tali is
pregnant. I suddenly felt so connected
to her in a new way, to the continuity of generations.
I wanted to
knit a blanket.. Actually I need to knit TWO blankets.
What is
knitting? It is connecting one kind of
loop to another small piece of wool; over and over and over again. One loop connecting to another until you can
see a whole piece of fabric emerge.
 |
| Rabbi Alicia knitting a baby blanket |
Yona showed
me how to knit the way my mother did, the European way… a connection with my
mother… with how I remember her knitting when I was a child. Since I am a beginner, I made mistakes. Lisa
showed me how to fix a small mistake like losing a few stitches, and Denise
showed me that I had made a large error: I had put down the knitting, and when
I picked it up again I went in the wrong direction; I didn’t see the signs and
kept going for 7 or 8 more rows. She
told me that I would have to rip out all those rows and do them over. But I really learned from that.
Despite the
global instant connections you make through the internet, really most
interactions and connections are like those knitted loops, one tiny word, one
short call, one brief visit after another, until there is the whole fabric, a
useful blanket, sweater, hat, or gift…the whole history of a relationship.
This is
like Teshuvah. We can make a small mistake or let slip a
word that can be repaired if we catch it quickly and make amends. But sometimes we take a completely wrong
direction and don’t realize it… and then it is a much bigger deal to repair. We
might have to spend more time, effort, concentration, focus, and tears to dig
out, rip out, talk out, the damage, and it can take some time and effort to
build up again those rows, that friendship, that trust again.
We have
come to services tonight, and if possible for the whole arc of the High Holy
days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, and then Sukkot afterwards as well. At each one of these services, a particular
prayer may suddenly take on new meaning and bring to light a teaching, a
healing that you need right then.
Maybe after
saying “Ashamnu, Bagadnu… We have
sinned, we have betrayed…” you may suddenly have the awareness that you dropped
a few “stitches” or perhaps that you made a whole wrong direction and need to
rip out several rows. After hearing Avinu Malkeinu, Our Parent, our Ruler,
you may feel that you wish to reconnect with God, or however you imagine your
Highest Guidance. After hearing the
blasts of the shofar, you may feel your emotions stirred and reconnected with
your essential soul. And then you will feel
strong, empowered, humble enough to make a tough call or make an apology that
will bring you back to the state of wholeness, of shalom, of peace, so you can
continue in a good and positive direction. Hopefully you will find it in your
heart to offer forgiveness to those who have hurt you, so you do not have to
carry the burden of that hurt and anger any longer.
These
prayers shouldn’t stay on the printed page, or even in this Sanctuary. They
are meant to penetrate our hearts and minds and remain with us when we leave.
If your
knots are made correctly, your boat will stay safely moored when needed, and when
you are ready, the sails will unfurl when the wind is right, and you will sail
forward smoothly and safely.
Check
your knots, check your stitches. Do you
have the right ones for the right job?
Do you need help in recognizing where the knots might be getting loose,
or the stitches are not adding up to a straight row?
During Elul
and right now during these Days of Awe, we each have the opportunity to check
all those areas of connections. The
prayers offer a technology of connection –
How are we
connecting with our own soul? How are we
connecting with our family and friends and co-workers? How are we connecting
with the wider circle of Jews in the world, with Israel, and with
humanity? How are we connecting with
nature and the environment? How are we
connecting with God, the Giver of life?
Through
these days, I invite you to consider the prayers, the blessings, the songs, the
opening of the Ark, the reading from the Torah, the bibliodrama making the
prophetic words of Jeremiah on Day Two of Rosh Hashanah come alive…. All of
these point the way to connect more closely, more fully, with the relationships
that make up our lives.
RH DAY ONE September
25, 3014
Connection with mishpacha, sometimes chosen,
like congregation. Inevitable friction. Repairs, digging out the reason why the
tiles were settling next to the building.
THEN placing tiles over the space. smoothing over. Rebirth.
My theme
for these High Holy Days is KESHER –
Connection. There are so many ways we are tied, linked, connected. This
morning, when we read about the very beginning of creation, and the earliest
families, I want to focus on our connections with family and close
friends.
Last night I shared how I have been
learning to knit, and because I started in the middle of a row to knit in the
wrong direction, I had to rip out many rows.
Sometimes, as we add stitch upon stitch, row upon row of connections we
make mistakes, or other people do, and the result has holes, uneven rows, or
remains unfinished.
I have
heard many stories of people who just felt they didn’t belong in the family
into which they were born, and rather than continue the pain of disconnect with
their birth family, chose friends to be their family. That is one of the joys of membership in
synagogue: connections with a larger Mishpacha, family. From elders, to young people, partnered, and
single, young children … we have here a beautiful connection that can fill
those missing parts. I never had
grandparents, so I adopted other people’s grandparents.
Those of us who are far from our family members can turn for
socialization and celebration and help to other members. We say as a whole community, Ashamnu, Bagadnu… not to hide, but to
take responsibility for our own shortcomings in a safe embrace of community. We hear “Who shall live, and who shall die…” and we feel connected to all those who are
ill and in need of a visit, or support, or hope through the life stages we are
all going through. We realize the
preciousness of each moment of connection since, indeed, who knows when someone
we just saw will not be there tomorrow?
The last words we always say should be loving and positive.
Our connections
with others might be brief or of long standing, casual or intense, a thin
thread or a solid heavy rope, but all those moments of contact have meaning and
an impact. Here, now, in the month of Tishrei, the beginning of the year, is
where we gain strength to say what is in our hearts. If you move around the Hebrew letters of Tishrei, you get Reishit, ‘beginning”, and that word comes from the root Rosh, Head,
just as in Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year. This month, the head of the
year, is like the Rosh, head of the body, that controls the functions, senses,
and movement of the body. So, our
behavior every day throughout this month of Tishrei
affects our lives during the days of the following year.
During the
High Holy Days, the Gates of Repentance are Open, and it is a perfect time to
review and consider our connection with our family and friends over the past
year, to write in our Book of Living Fully that I have printed out, what we
have achieved, where we have fallen short, and how we hope to strengthen those
vital connections in the coming year. (Show “Book of Life,” and encourage
them to fill theirs out. Show how I broke the seal and opened mine from last
year, and filled out a new one for 5775).
This is
the Birthday of humanity in the world. It is a time for
each of us to “rebirth” ourselves, to wake up those places in us that have
become asleep, deadened, unaware. The
blasts of the shofar literally are a wake-up call, an alarm, a sobbing, and
finally, a note of wholeness and repair.
A connection of sound between us and each other; between us and
God.
I wish you
a sweet, healthy, and transforming New Year. May the sweetness of our honey and
apples and round challah give us reserve strength to overcome challenges, and
keep reconnecting.
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