GRATEFULNESS FOR BIRTHDAYS

"I love birthdays. However, in the spirit of gratefulness and love I would
suggest that the birthday be celebrated a little differently. When the child is
old enough, it is my recommendation that not the son or daughter receive
gifts and attention, but the parents. After all, without the parents the child
would not have received the greatest of all gifts, the gift of life. Would it not
be more fitting and spiritually enlightening for the one whose birth is being
recognized to express gratefulness not by receiving gifts but by giving them
to the source of their life? "

The above is an excerpt from my forthcoming book--"I THANK THEREFORE I AM-GRATEFULNESS AS HEALING."
Tomorrow I will be 69 years old.I know that my family and friends will honor me by bestowing a gift of a quiet and modest celebration for which I will be most grateful. Perhaps there will be tangible gifts as well. In fact, however, the giving should be redirected, from me to them- I give them my gratitude for their care, support and love. Thus this birthday I say thank you to family-parents who gave me life and nurtured it, to siblings who served as partners in the act of child rearing, to my wife and children without whom my life's value and worth would dramatically diminish, if not entirely disappear.
A good friend, a poet, shared an essay with me which I consider a precious birthday gift in spite of his not being aware of this occasion. The essay, by Pat Schneider, is titled: IF I WERE GOD. The following are several selections:
"If I were God, I would make a world exactly like this one. I love its inconsistencies,its contradictions...I love it that people are free, even to be selfish and to think they own beaches and mountaintops and have the right to keep the poor off them. I love it that things change, that the boundaries of nations and the fences of the rich get torn down sometimes...I love it that I don't know exactly where I am, because it helps me to remember that I don't know exactly where Earth is in this galaxy, or where this galaxy is in this universe, or whether I have only this lifetime or we have many lifetimes . I love supposing this one is the only one, because it keeps me mindful of how precious everything is."
A special thanks to the readers of this blog-your interest in the best gift of all.
With deepest gratefulness to the Source of All things,
Shabbat Shalom

GRATEFUL FOR ONE MORE DAY

I am grateful to Rabbi Kenneth Stern, rabbi of Gesher Shalom, Fort Lee, NJ for his sermon of Shemini Atzeret, which gave rise to these thoughts.


Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Day of Assembly is sui generis in the Torah for one reason-it has no stated rationale or reason for its observance. The text simply ordains an “atzeret,” translated as an assembly or as a refraining (from work), on the eighth day following the seven-day celebration of Succot. It is both independent of Succot and its appendage. In the liturgy, the mood of Succot, rejoicing, is extended into this additional day.
Thus Shemini Atzeret emerges as the answer to our prayers for one more day, especially when we anticipate the ending of a period of happiness and joy. The rabbis poignantly understand this day as one in which God urges His beloved Israel to linger with Him a little while longer-one more day-and not go off to its mundane affairs of work and ordinary activity during which the Lover is not paid much attention to.
To me Shemini Atzeret represents a “concert” which has ended but the audience shouts encore and is given the extra few moments of musical joy as the expression of the artist’s generosity of her gift. Shemini Atzeret is symbolic of the extra, the untapped talent, strength and capacity deep within each of us. When we arrive at a designated end- the performance is over, the job is done, one’s life nears termination, somehow there is always a little more, a little more goodness, a little more joy, a little more love that can be extracted from deep within our spirits and souls. When we feel exhausted physically, emotionally even spiritually, in some extraordinary way there is still a little more left with which to brighten and bless our world. I believe that the sense of gratefulness with which we view the world is the source for this ‘neshama yeteirah,’ this additional soulfulness that allows us to touch inner resources never before imagined. Seeing the glass not only half- full but a blessing even with a few drops is a powerful source of spiritual strength and fortitude. Perhaps this ability provides the definition of heroism, the transcendent moment of one more day, one more mitzvah, one more act of kindness, one more word of gratitude.
Like the High Holydays, which are without ritual except for the Shofar, Shemini Atzeret emerges as a time of pure spirituality during which all we have is ourselves, our loved ones and our God. Perhaps Shemini Atzeret was designed this way to serve as the closing parenthesis of this extended period of spiritual renewal and preparation for the New Year. Tomorrow is Shabbat Bereshit, the Sabbath of Genesis, a new beginning. We are grateful for the one more day of preparation so that our performance in the realm of the human spirit will excel each day of the coming year.
Shabbat Shalom.

GRATEFULNESS FOR TESHUVAH (3)

PAYING ATTENTION IS AN IMPORTANT PATH IN SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING. THE WAY OF MINDFULNESS WHEN APPLIED TO THE TEXT OF PRAYER ILLUMINATES THE HEART WITH MANY SIGNIFICANT INSIGHTS. FROM MY ATTEMPT TO BE MORE MINDFUL THIS SUCCOT, THE FOLLOWING AWARENESS WAS ARRIVED AT, FOR WHICH I AM MOST GRATEFUL,
RETURNING TO THE CONCEPT OF TESHUVAH AND ITS ROOT ORIGIN OF “SHIN” AND “VEIT,” I STUMBLED UPON ITS RECURRENCE IN SEVERAL LITURGICAL REFERENCES RECITED ON SUCCOT.
IN THE HALLEL, THE SPECIAL PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR FESTIVE OCCASIONS, THE FIRST PARAGRAPH CULMINATES IN REFERENCES TO THE VERB –SHUV. GOD’S GRANDEUR AND LOFTINESS ARE INTERTWINED WITH HIS ESSENTIAL NATURE OF ONE WHOSE CONCERN IS FOR THE LOWLY AND THE DOWNTRODDEN. IN THIS VITAL CAPACITY OF COMPASSION, GOD RAISES UP AND RESTORES-“LEHOSHIVI”……”MOSHIVI”….. -HE PLACES ME AMONG THE NOBLE...AND HE RESTORES THE BARREN WOMAN TO A STATE OF FRUITFULNESS. (Psalm 113)
THUS WE PRAISE IN LIGHT OF THE CONVICTION OF BEING RESTORED AND ELEVATED; THE TESHUVAH OF YOM TOV, OF THE FESTIVAL, IS LINKED TO THE CERTITUDE OF GOD’S COMPASSION AND FAIRNESS.
“MA ASHEEV LASHEM KOL GAMLOHI ALAI?”- HOW CAN I RECIPROCATE FOR ALL THAT HAS BEEN BESTOWED UPON ME? (PSALM116) TESHUVAH HERE ELICITS THE INESCAPABLE SPIRITUAL CONCLUSION THAT GRATEFULNESS IS THE ONLY PROPER AND MEANINGFUL RESPONSE TO THE BLESSINGS GRANTED TO US. THUS, FOR TESHUVAH TO FIND AN ONGOING RESONANCE IN TIMES OF CELEBRATION, IT MUST EMBRACE THE RESPONSE OF GRATEFULNESS IN BOTH FEELING AND DEED.
FINALLY, AMIDST THE SAD MEMORIES OF YIZKOR, MEMORIAL PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD, INTIMATIONS OF TESHUVA ALSO ARISE.”THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD…’NAFSHI YESHOVAYV’ ” –HE REVIVES MY SPIRIT. (PSALM 23) WHEN NEEDED MOST, TESHUVAH REMINDS US OF OUR CAPACITY FOR REVIVAL, THE RESTORATION OF HUMAN VITALITY AND ALIVENESS.
IN SPITE OF IT ALL, THE PSALMIST ASSURES US THAT ULTIMATELY “VESHAVTI BEVAIT HASHEM LE’ORECH YAMIM,”-I WILL DWELL IN OR RETURN TO, GOD’S HOUSE, FOR EVER. TESHUVAH IS THE FINAL DESTINATION OF OUR LIVES WHEN CONNECTED TO THE RETURN TO GOD’S PRESENCE, A PLACE DEEP WITHIN OUR HEARTS AND SOULS.

GRATEFUL FOR THE LEAVES...

Today was the final day of Succot-after today, no more Succah, no more lulav and etrog, no more special festival praise and prayer.Today we added the leaves of the willow to the existing bundle of leaves and plants, the "aravot." At the completion of the seven circuits of Hoshanah Rabah, the great or extended pronouncements of "save us,"we take the bundle of the willow leaves and proceed to whack them against the seat or bench in front of us until all willow branches are stripped bare of their leaves. This beating of the willows represents another tangible effort to extricate ourselves from bad spiritual habits and behavior.
I confess that not only children but adults too have difficulty taking this custom seriously and invariably a mood of mischievous silliness overcomes most audiences at this time. Needless to say, when the service is over the work load on the synagogue custodian has increased exponentially.
I demonstrated the custom to my students who rushed to retrieve some fallen leaves from the floor and immediately smell them ,commenting on how fragrant these wasted willows were. I was struck for a moment by the unfair disregard we exhibited to plant life, and with an awareness of dying leaves drifting in the autumn air down to their final resting place on the earth below, felt a melancholy pang of sadness.
The day before, the silent sun drenched air of a cool October afternoon was pierced by the blasting buzz of a machine that blows away fallen leaves. As I pointed the nozzle in the direction of these layers of brown and yellow leaves, the air was filled with the pungent aroma of dying leaves that seemed to invigorate the lives around us. My nostrils quivered with the sweet tang of autumn leaves. The brown, burnished by the sun's rays ,reflected a golden shimmer, delaying the dryness of inevitable death. Each leaf, alone and abandoned, no longer attached to branch and root, no longer recipient of earth's loving nurturance. I blow these once colorful collections of hallowed hues into piles alongside paths where human feet will tread. They return to replenish the reservoirs of life deep within the earth, touched only by the fleeting hoofs of frightened deer, a gentle trespass of wood's denizen.
As the bursting air sweeps the leaves away, I recite a silent Kaddish , a praise of God,hallowing His Name for the gift of leaves, now put to rest after blessing our lives with the fresh green colors of spring and summer and the lush earth colors in the twilight of their 'lives.' They are now rewoven into the fabric of the earth, soon to decompose and re-energize the earth with their life giving ingredients.

As they sleep under drifts of snow yet to fall, they will disappear from the sight of man but remembered by the Source of All things.

GRATEFULNESS-MESSAGE OF SUCCOT

‘HAVEL HAVALIM; HAKOL HAVEL!’ VANITY OF VANITIES; ALL IS VANITY.
Koheleth, Ecclesiates , regards life as simply a recurring cycle of sameness and inevitability. All striving, ambition and human effort is folly. How depressing! Nothing seems to be of any value to the author of this extraordinary book, and yet it is part of Holy Scripture, read in the synagogue on Hol Hamoed Succot,the intermediary days of Succot, regarded by the world as not only great literature but also a masterpiece of religious writing.
Kohelet sees whatever we consider to be of value, whatever is deemed to make life meaningful and worthwhile, as absurd. Physical pleasures, wealth, power, fame even wisdom are useless achievements. The ostensible ideals of justice, loyalty and hard work, mere illusion.
I revisit Koheleth and with new eyes connected to an open heart, I discover an insight that gives meaning to an otherwise empty human existence of vanity and futility.
“Therefore, I praise joy- simcha, for there is no other good for man under the sun but to eat, drink, and be joyful, and have this accompany him in his toil during the days of his life which God has given him beneath the sun.”(8:15)
“I know of no other good-TOV-in life but to be happy while one lives; indeed, every man who eats, drinks and enjoys happiness-u’reay TOV-lit.recognize the good-in his work, that is a gift of God.”(3:12-13)
What makes everyday, ordinary human existence so joyful? Has not Koheleth utterly rejected any hope of satisfaction not only from routine human activity but also from the extraordinary, the uncommon attainment of wealth, wisdom, fame and power? How then can one rejoice and moreover find meaning in the simple and ordinary pleasures of life -food, drink, toil and the sun shining in a clear blue sky? To understand Koheleth I believe we must look carefully and attentively to the source of such joy…’which God has given him’… …’that is the gift of God’…
Gratefulness for life in its most elemental components is the gateway to a sense of joy and meaning in life. The awareness of our good fortune in being alive constitutes a fundamental validation of life’s indefinable value and worth while ness. For simcha to be experienced as the fullest joy, conscious mindfulness of life as a gift from God is a sine qua non.
It is not the quantity of acquisition or attainment but the quality of thankfulness embedded in our response to each and every gift that we enjoy under the sun.” In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast.
Why do we read Koheleth during Succoth? It is the time of our rejoicing,’zeman simchataynu,’ a period of harvest and bounty, our Jewish Thanksgiving. Can you think of any more appropriate book than Koheleth to recite in the synagogue at this time? I cannot.
As long as we can perceive the gift of life through the shadows of painful hopelessness and despair; if we pay attention through the looking glass of gratitude beyond the clouds of ostensible absurdity and oblivion; if we find it in our hearts and prayers to recite daily-modeh ani lefanecha-I thank You- for the sunshine of each and every day, then our lives will reflect the light of simcha-the joy that is joined to the heart’s capacity to say ‘thank you.’

GRATEFUL FOR THE SUCCAH

What fascinates me most about Jewish tradition and the Hebrew language is how certain words contain multi layered dimensions of association and meaning. For the High Holyday season that just passed, "Teshuvah" was a key word with a universe of spiritual significance embedded within it.Now we approach Succot and as I reflect on the meaning of this holiday it occurs to me that the concept of "Teshuvah" runs into the Succot celebration like a flowing stream of water that cleanses and clarifies.
Upon stepping into the Succah-the tiny, fragile hut in which we dwell for the Succot holiday, we recite the blessing- "Blessed are You...who ordained that we -"Lay-shev"- we dwell in the succah."In the action of dwelling we encounter an allusion to "Teshuvah."
Both words contain the root consonants-"shin" and "veit", SH-V.Is there a connection between the experience of Teshuvah on the High Holidays and that of sitting or dwelling in the Succah?I believe there is a profound link between the two.
To better establish this relationship I quote a passage from Psalms that is recited throughout this period-from the onset of High Holydays through the end of Succot.
"One thing I ask of the Lord, for this I yearn,to dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life."(Psalm 27,4). The image of the Psalmist suggests more than the physical dwelling in a shrine or temple.The place of dwelling is spiritual in nature, it's parameters are within our hearts and souls.
When we take leave of the artificial comfort and security of our year round homes and enter into a space of fragility which is exposed almost totally to the elements around us, we are made keenly aware of the ultimate source of security and spiritual place in the universe. Encompassed by brick, mortar and glass may keep out the cold and the heat of the outside; only a consciousness of our intimate connection to all things and to the Source of everything can endow us with an inner understanding of acceptance and faith that transform our lives into authentic refuges of homecoming and serenity.
In an earlier posting on Teshuvah, mention was made of "Teshuvah" as related to return and homecoming-the process completes itself as we return to our natural homes symbolized by the Succah with its "Sechach"-a ceiling with slats wide enough for us to feel the sun and see the stars.
Where is the house of the Lord in which the Psalmist yearns to dwell? It is that sacred space of heart and soul, the place of God's in-dwelling, where one experiences the safety, assurance and peacefulness of a divine Presence. To discover this home one must sit-simply be with what is and mindfully recognize the gift of all things, without barriers or walls of separation and fragmentation.
The beauty of the Succah-the idea of "Hidur"-of adorning the Succah transcends external aesthetics to the beauty of the universe as perceived in our hearts and souls.
Moadim Le Simcha-A joyful Succot holiday.

GRATEFUL FOR THE DAY AFTER YOM KIPPUR

The holiest day on the Jewish calendar has come and gone and after a day of reflection I continue along this path and reflect upon the day that has passed. All of us I am sure are grateful that we can now eat and drink again. My gratefulness extends beyond the thankfulness for no longer fasting.
For the first time in 46 years, I spent Yom Kippur as a congregant and not as a rabbi. I was released of the obligations of conducting the service-preaching, teaching, commenting, announcing pages, directing Bimah-pulpit traffic, politely shushing the congregation when the noise level reached unacceptable levels, emceeing and at times, playing stand up comedian. Yesterday I sat with my family and listened-free of the responsibility that falls on the shoulders of rabbis expected to put on an impeccably successful synagogue service. I was able to daaven-to pray with a clear mind and heart, without the preoccupations and anxieties usually associated with the requirement to direct and control the flow of a worship service.
I must confess that there were times that I missed being up on the pulpit in the limelight, playing a role that so many were dependent upon. I especially found it difficult not to be sharing Jewish ideas with others.
Yet, I was blessed with the unique experience of standing alongside wife and children care-freely singing and praying without a thousand eyes observing my every gesture and motion.
I could halt at a particularly inspiring passage or verse and dwell on its meaning without the need to anticipate the next page of the Mahzor-the High Holyday prayer book in preparation for announcing the next page.
I had the freedom to think quietly to myself, to consider a commentary connected to a prayer that caught my attention. Simply, I was grateful for the gift of being able to pray on Yom Kippur.
For the first time in many years I learned what it felt like to be a congregant during these lengthy and elaborate services. With the hindsight of one such Yom Kippur, I would recommend to my colleagues to sit in the pews with their flock prior to assuming the role of rabbi in order to avoid losing touch with the emotional content of the congregant’s worship experience.
As the service unfolded, and a sense of yearning for the pulpit began to assert itself, I silently meditated on my need to be grateful for this change in my life. My prayers were interspersed with these gratefulness meditations, helping me to gain the awareness that Yom Kippur was indeed a time of at-one-ment, allowing me to embrace a new reality in my life and being thankful for it.

GRATEFULNESS AS AT-ONE-MENT

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement is viewed at the very least ,as an uncomfortable day.Fasting and other physical deprivations such as not engaging in sexual activity do not contribute to a sense of rejoicing or celebration.On the surface, there is not much for which to be grateful.
Yet,beyond our physical needs which are suspended on this day, all of us I believe yearn for a sense of inner harmony with ourselves and with the world around us.In other words, our deepest desire is for at-one-ment, to feel at one with life, not to struggle with a sense of fragmentation, disorder even chaos. Feeling torn apart, ill at ease,in conflict with ourselves and others is a source of terrible suffering and mental anguish. Much of this disharmony arises from an insatiable desire for more, a gnawing sense that nothing we have is good enough, our inability to accept our imperfections and go forward with our lives. In a word, we are stricken with ingratitude, blind to the gifts that have been given freely. Perhaps we need to be deprived in order to restore our sense of gratefulness by which at-one-ment can be attained.
Yom Kippur bids us to pay mindful attention to the fundamental realities of our existence- our bodies, minds and hearts. We experience the miracle of each minute function of our bodily beings-breathing, our senses of sight, smell, hearing, touching and taste; mobility of myriad parts of our physical structure from our legs to our eyelids; the wonder of our minds to think, to speak, to imagine , to remember and to anticipate. The amazement associated with human feeling-joy, even sorrow, empathy, love,even anger,gratefulness. So many gifts, so little gratitude.
I pray that this Yom Kippur bring us closer to our sense of oneness and harmony, to a fuller awareness of how grateful we can be and how this perspective of gratefulness can bring us increased reconciliation and at-one-ment with ourselves, others and with the Source of all things.

GRATEFUL FOR TESHUVAH-"OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES"

I have mentioned before how delighted I am to teach young children. Not only do my grandfatherly instincts come into play but I genuinely enjoy the imaginative and intelligent innocence of children. The lessons I learn bring me not only laughter but the light of an awareness that is often lost to the minds of older people.
I asked a group of elementary school children,grades 1-4, what the meaning of Teshuvah was.Conventionally, it is translated as repentance which in itself is a difficult notion to grasp for both child and adult. Since the students study modern Hebrew and some of them are Israeli, a response from several was :"Teshuvah" means an answer."
Indeed, in everyday Hebrew parlance, the word for an answer to a question is "teshuvah."
In thinking about this answer it occurred to me that these children had hit upon a very profound meaning of Teshuvah, the concept of repentance , change , return or transformation, all of which are contained in this spiritually powerful word.
The process of Teshuvah during this season of the High Holydays is in fact a summons to answer for our lives as spiritual and moral Jews and human beings. Each year we halt our frenetic activities and preoccupations and we are asked:"What's it all about? What does my life mean? Am I living my life as an authentic reflection of my "inner self" and the image of God that was implanted in me?
The first step toward change is to ask the right question, to seek the honest answer, to search for a "teshuvah!"
The answer is one that each individual arrives at in her/his own spiritual search. General guidelines may help in this quest; only an answer that speaks to our individual hearts and souls will in the end resonate with the song of genuine Teshuvah.
The human being was given the gift of being able to ask questions and provide answers. We are grateful for this gift of teshuvah during the Ten Days of Teshuvah which span this period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

GRATEFULNESS AS A PATH OF TESHUVAH

Today, the Sabbath of Teshuvah “repentance,” ordained a prophetic reading that proclaimed the obligation to “Return O Israel unto the Lord your God, …”(Hosea 14:2)
Moreover the prophet points out a spiritual strategy by which a movement toward Teshuvah can be accomplished. The approach is contained in the urging that you “take words-devarim- with you” and by way of these words you will able to embark on an inner journey toward God.
The question, of course, arises: What words does the prophet have in mind? Words of Torah? Beyond a doubt. However, this remains much too general, unspecific and abstract. I believe that the following verses help us define more clearly for ourselves the path of our Teshuva.
“Say to Him: Forgive all sins, accept what is good…we will pay the offering of our lips.”(v. 3)
Words directed at God can become compelling instruments of inner change when directed to ourselves.
“Forgive all sins”-Be compassionate toward yourself and toward others; let go of the desire to find fault and seek retribution; turn away from anger and envy and turn your heart to the good and the decent in yourself and in others.
“Accept what is good”-kach tov- instead of the common translation found in the Etz Hayyim Commentary, I would translate kach more literally as “take.” This word as response resonates with the urging the we kechoo, take words with us for this critical spiritual undertaking. ”Take the good”-See the giftedness and beauty of life, cultivate this awareness and the inner attitude of gratefulness; join God in perceiving the world as “and it was good.”
“…pay the offering of our lips.” Open your heart and lips with praise and prayer; give voice to your feeling of being grateful for words of praise have the power to transform one’s life into a space of goodness and joy.
Whether in the synagogue, at home, by a babbling brook, gratefulness summons our hearts and minds to return to the Source of all goodness,

GRATEFUL FOR THE BABBLING BROOK

I spent the Sabbath of Teshuvah, of repentance, not in the synagogue listening to a sermon on Teshuvah but rather alongside a country brook. It was a crisp, sunny early autumn day; the leaves were beginning their metamorphosis from deep green to brilliant reds. oranges and yellows. The air was dotted with falling leaves floating onto the marshy ground below, each a piece of the mosaic carpet covering the earth’s awaiting embrace.
We sat together on our meditation bench by the brook. Eyes closed for greater clarity, we listened; ”shema”-listen, pay attention, direct your heart to the subtle and gentle sounds of waters trickling over smoothened stones. The gurgling waters elicited an awareness of the flow of life, its continuity and change, its certain movement forward. A baby’s gurgle came to mind and I readily realized that like the brook, all of life issues forth the fluid of
refreshing nurturance and cleansing sweetness. If we could only heed the gift of flowing water in a brook, perhaps we can begin to turn our hearts to life’s gifts in their totality, the sweeping skies above and the bountiful, boundless earth below.
We are enjoined to return, to experience a homecoming in face of so much alienation and spiritual distance. Sitting among the silent trees, with leaves dancing in the wind accompanied by the music of the brook, I felt at home, at peace, confident in God’s protective promise for the future. Grateful for the gurgle helped guarantee that a home of such beauty and glory will adorn the lives of my children and generations to come.
I did not need the chastisements of rabbi or prophet to understand the need for Teshuvah; the still, soft voice of gentle flowing waters seeped into my soul with the power of their message of the invaluable preciousness of life for which the grateful heart can only thank and praise God, and turn to the purity of soul that is our spiritual identity and destiny.

GRATEFULNESS FOR A FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIP

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the stirring, frightening and disturbing episode of the Akeda-the Binding of Isaac- was read in the synagogue."Take your son, your favored son, Isaac, whom you love...and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the heights..."(Genesis 22:2.)It becomes quickly evident that this command is not meant to be carried out but serves as an almost inconceivable challenge to Abraham's sense of trust in God.
The text goes on with a poignant description of a father-son relationship."...and the two of them walked off together."
The depth of this kind of relationship assumes the most compelling of dimensions. What emerges in the Torah narrative is a shared commitment between father and son, between parent and child, between the generation of life-givers and the generation of life-receivers, to an ideal or conviction that transcends life itself. It is a most powerful metaphor for cross generational unity and mutuality.
For me, on Rosh Hashanah, I experienced, in not a fearful but a joyful and grateful way ,the walking together with my son, as we shared in the "mitzvah" of bringing the beauty of Rosh Hashanah to patients who were unable to be in synagogue but for whom their sacred space was the hospital. We shared our presence, our greetings, our wishes and prayers for health, and our breaths, as we each took turns in sounding the shofar for this unusual congregation.
My gratefulness was such that these few hours of 'bikur holim,'visiting the sick, was not a sacrifice but a gift to me and I believe to my son, the incredible gift of sharing ourselves together for the sake of others.
I am most thankful for this experience, and its memory nurtures my sense of gratitude beyond the moment of its occurrence.


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