Yom Kippur 2013

 Yom Kippur 2013

For the Congregation on a Cruise Ship in Alaska

Every year we arrive at this place. We know that some gates are closing and it gets confusing. Is Judaism a religion that marks fate in one moment, we think, on our ability to have come to a place of forgiveness on the eve of Yom Kippur?  If we say the right apologies and have a fleeting possible moment of light and revelation …does this mean we will be protected from adversity, conflict, hail storms, illness, and failure? I think not. 

 

That’s not really why we are praying. I mean, we’re on a cruise ship. This is an adult Disneyland. Anything you want, anything you can think of is available here, let alone the hot sun but I think we’re all ready for fall anyway. And here you are, here you sit and I don’t think that anyone here believes fully that God is saying..oh there’s Simon and even on a cruise ship he is davenin Yom Kippur: I’ll give him one more year. 

No there’s another reason why we choose to be together here now.  As Arthur Green says: Prayer is the process by which the spark of divine light within each of us seeks other sparks, the lights within all creation and joins with them in the return to the one great source of light.

When we pray together we help each other rise to God.

 The Sfas Emet points out that Yom Kippur itself is known as a Shabbat Shabbaton. In the realm of time it is the greatest of all Shabbats, its Divine service is performed by the Kohen Gadol in the most sacred space on earth, the Holy of Holies.   The Sfas Emet continues to say that when Yom Kippur falls on Shabbat  rather than simply being passive participants in the process of spiritual ascent , the Jewish people (when the days coincide) are to be active.  Let’s make this clear.  On Shabbat we sit on the high branch of a tree, and on Yom Kippur we are climbing the tree. Today, we can watch ourselves make the climb. We can stay where we are and simply through love and light we can move our animal…lower selves….to the place of our higher selves. We can do it without throwing a solid rope. We can do it simply through focus and compassion.

 We can create an intimacy with Hashem…and therefore with each other… on the highest level.  We all mess up.  But if we are to walk in God’s ways…as we read in Netzavim…we can pull ourselves out of any big mess…out of our inner darkness…  even above a vow… to a closer state of being with God, to an embrace of wholeness that manifests meaning and action.  So, then, let’s go, we think.  Let’s do it.  But how?

This is what many Jewish leaders have shown us: The way to the beauty and symbol of God is by seeing ourselves as poetry, as symbol. If we see our being-ness as vessels to hold the force of truth and Oneness…we will be that much closer to the highest branch of the tree. If we see our being-ness as simply one body that will do whatever necessary to get up any tree…then we find ourselves slipping down time and time again. 

It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s not even about us. It’s about a universal yes to the process of self and community creation.  That’s why we sit here, not to take part in the fear and guilt, but to actively step forward and welcome with open arms the yes of life. The best thing we can do now…so close to the eve of Yom Kippur…is to  feel the sweet breath of life.