Hear Our Voice

I’m not sure that I’ve been very good company this week. I’ve been a bit prone to getting lost in a few too many hours of TV news. I put on a good face because I want no one to feel a sense of desolation, at least on my watch. But that doesn’t mean Natalie gets that good face all the time. COVID and our ever-discombobulating culture have, for the most part, presented someone like me, who generally relishes leaning into uneven ground, with significant catalysts for re-imagining Jewish prayer and spirituality. After all, as I have been wont to preach many times, it’s easy to be an optimist when things are going well. The spiritual work comes when we seek to find the good amidst the really difficult. Not because we are fatalistic, that this is all part of God’s plan. But that the plan, as unknowable as it remains, has always included the potential for the ups and the downs, the fortunate and the unfortunate. Nonetheless, I am definitely feeling the weight of this work. Keeping a stiff upper lip, keeping my eyes on the prize, putting one foot in front of the other, recognizing and affirming that it is these moments that help us feel the most alive… it’s all getting a little much. A lot much.

I do know that Shabbat and prayer and communal gathering, even though on-line, help. So please join us tonight. We need you to be there. As important, and please forgive me for my presumption, but you need it too.

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