This blog is in honor of two of my closest friends that are no longer with us. Yoram Getzler,z”l my co-host at Israelseen and Dr. Rabbi Moshe Dror, z”l. May their memories be only for a blessing.
By Steve Ornstein,
Another New Year comes around and we again bless each other with a Chag Sameach and Shana Tova (Happy Holiday and a good new year). This year I feel especially blessed with the experience of grandchildren in my life. Ranging from 3 years old to just a few months. I am able to experience the ultimate joy of just being in a timeless state of enjoyment “hanging” out with the kids. This means giving up everything that normally distracts me, especially telephones, i-pads, and the internet. Just BEING! Not wanting, desiring, hoping, praying or meditating, but just being Here and Now.
Rosh Hashana – The head of the year, is the time when we once again have the blessing to look back over the past year and scan the memories that have created this moment in time. We celebrate with family and friends the New Year with a fresh feeling of hope and goodness. This is the opportunity of being together in the celebration of our lives.
As I look over this past year and witness the horrible tragedies that have taken place by the hand of nature and by the hand of Man/Woman, I take a deep breath in the knowing that as long as I have another breath it is possible to be a part of Tikkun Olam ( fixing/repairing of this world).
Living in Israel with all its contradictions and imperfections is still a manifestation of the choice to be ALIVE and to live our lives as fully as we are capable. Just the presence of being here is a tikkun olam for me personally.
It is often exhausting to counter all the hatred and anti-Israel comments that fill the consciousness of the entire globe. I am obviously not referring to honest criticism or different points of view about Israel. I am referring to the emotional outbursts, often taking on such a frenzy of hate that it results in a despicable anti-Semitic tone.
As Yom Kippur approaches I have been reflecting during my daily meditation and prayers of all the pain I have created through my moments of selfishness and blindness to other people’s needs.
The center of our solar system is the sun, so too is the Infinite-Oneness of All People the center of our human experience. As I reflect on Being a Jew I am exhilarated by the moral and ethical values we have been blessed with as a people, the individual and the communal responsibility to manifest these values for all mankind.
We certainly are doing this as a nation/community in various fields of endeavors that eases the suffering of the world. This is what we do and are “commanded”, “suggested” to make this an active part of our daily lives as Jews: Mitzvot.
I am blessed by the experience of what Rav. Heschel called “radical amazement”. Living in the moment free of any wants or desires while living just for the being of it. This “unity” experience is the blessing of seeing all too clearly the “all” of it. The entire spectrum of behavior witnessing it all as if one stands under the canopy of LIFE marveling at the paradoxical simplicity and complexity of it ALL.
G’mar Chatima Tova..May we all be inscribed in the “book” of life with goodness and awareness of the beauty within and the beauty that surrounds us in the world of becoming.
נשמה קרליבך – Neshama Carlebach – Return Again
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