This Shabbat we begin the cycle of love; seven special Torah readings leading up to our New Year, Rosh
HaShannah, seven weeks in which we open to the experience of G-d’s love for us, and G-d’s yearning to have us draw closer.
This week we also commemorated the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av, which marks the destruction of the First and Second Temple, as well as other tragedies for the Jewish people.
How is it that after centuries of persecution and hatred, Jews could say that they are G’ds beloved? It is not a matter of belief, a head kind of thing, but a matter of experience of the heart. I could quote you many sources, but my best testimonies are personal ones.
My first experiences were of the wonders of nature. I went to a camp in the mountains of Vermont, where dancing on the lawn, and canoeing on the lake gave me a sense of transcendent wonder. Of course I didn’t know that I was experiencing G-d’s love. It was much later, when Jewish texts came alive for me, that I experienced the Creator of nature as a source of love.
In my mid-thirties, in the midst of personal crisis, I went to synagogue, and uttered my first heartfelt, totally committed prayer. "Dear God," I said. "I do not know if You exist, but if You do and let me know You do, I will listen and follow. At the end of the service, I knew I had been heard.
How did I know? I felt like I had fallen in love, like I was totally floating in a sea of love. The flame of love that was kindled in my heart drew me to the synagogue and Torah study, and to the rabbinate.
Many say there are no atheists in foxholes, I say there are no atheists who live by the the water. It is just a question of semantics, of what names we allow ourselves to use for G-d. The Divine Name, yud-hav-vav-hay, is often translated in our generation not as Lord, but as Fountain of Blessings.
Fountain—a beautiful image of water rising in the air, rising and falling gently. Another name, Ruach Elohim—spirit of G-d, reminds us that G-d is the spirit that makes the winds to move, the sails to soar. the psalmist (Ps. 29) mentions Kol Adonai, the voice of G-d, that thunders over the mighty waters.
In this week’s Torah reading, G-d promises the people Israel unending love. My colleague, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, has written a poetic translation of Ahavat Olam, the prayer which is traditionally said each evening as an introduction to Shema Yisrael, Hear O Israel. Here are excerpts:
We are loved by an unending love.
We are embraced by arms that find us,
Even when we are hidden from ourselves.
We are touched by fingers that soothe us,
Even when we are too proud for soothing.
We are counseled by voices that guide us,
Even when we are too embittered to hear.
We are loved by an unending love.
When we come to a Shabbat service, and leave feeling warm and uplifted, we have felt G-d’s love. When we see the faces of babies and of children and are drawn to them, we are sensing the spirit G-d has placed within each of us.
In this week’s Torah, Moses tells the people, Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohaynu, Adonai, Echad.
Listen—hear—Israel. Listen to the voice of G-d. Listen for the sound of oneness in the universe. Listen, and hear.
The midrash, rabbinic legend, says that on Mt. Sinai G-d spoke to each one in a different voice. Let us take a few moments of silence now, and listen to the many voices of the Divine.
May we be blessed in our listening.