Foundation of Flowing Love, Six Days Omer 5785

Today is six days of the Omer in the year 5785. יסוד שבחסד, Yesod ShebeChesed, Foundation of Flowing Love. Intentional Relationships and Intentional Community create space for Love to Flow.

Human Connections Allow Love to Flow

Letting other people into our lives nourishes us.

Forging deep bonds creates space for Love to Flow.

Multiplying those bonds through interconnected community strengthens the Flow.

This is the reason for Spiritual Community.

Organized Judaism is for Jews, not for G!d

So often, I hear people say their kids are not involved in a synagogue because they’re atheists.

There is no litmus test of belief for Jews to join a synagogue.

I probably don’t believe in the G!d you don’t believe in.

Choosing Jewish space is about choosing community with other Jews.

Rabbis teach how our wisdom tradition helps us be better people.

There’s a reason theology is a foreign concept in Judaism.

The Divine is Beyond Words

Everything we think we know about the Divine is a refracted shadow of reality.

It is impossible for us to truly know G!d.

The G!d of the Bible is one version of Jewish understanding of G!d.

Many Jews, including rabbis, do not believe in the Deuteronomistic view of history:

We are not punished collectively for our “sins;”

Nor is history a reflection of our fealty to the Divine.

History describes choices made by humans with free will.

Evil is real and often, humans choose evil over goodness and truth.

Synagogues are Spaces for Introspection & Connection

I’ve chosen to leave my pulpit in the East Bay on June 30th.

It took me a long time to accept this necessity.

Holding space for community and creating deep connections with lay leaders has been my deepest honor.

Nevertheless, I would be a terrible example if I placed my ego’s need for being of service above my body’s need for rest.

We all must choose our own health first.

Then to the people we create family with.

Then to the communities that hold us.

Both within my synagogue and in the wider community in which we live, I’ve made more friends as an adult than at any other time since I graduated college 25 years ago.

I will miss this particular community.

And I am determined to take these lessons with me as we return to our previous communities in Southern California.