Midweek Musings
"... When I was young I admired clever people; now that I am older I admire kind people." —¬ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We are very much creatures of space.
We can examine the tangible world in which we live in great detail.¬ We build homes and places of business, places for learning, for the arts, for entertainment and for community needs.
The process of building can require much effort (as many members of the temple are aware) — but the result is tangible.¬ We can construct maps that guide us to our destination, and we look at an atlas to explore the world (or log on to Google Earth).
A visit to a planetarium can even help us to explore the further reaches of the cosmos.¬ We can travel backward and forward on a road, we control the direction in which we move — and with a little effort we control the speed also.
Time is so different.¬ We can move only in one direction — and we cannot control the speed; we cannot make even the most delightful moment linger, and we cannot speed through the tougher and rougher part of our lives.
There is no "fast forward" control for life.¬ Yet our perception of time is quite different.¬ I remember as a child that the two hours before my birthday party would seem to last an eternity — yet the party itself would be over, seemingly, in the "blink of an eye."
Time is a deeper measure of our journey through life, with fixed points at birth and death.¬ We cannot control the speed of journey through the years, but we are the masters of our experience.
Many of our great religions explore the concept of sacred space, and humanity is greatly enriched by the exquisite beauty and awesome scope of the churches, synagogues, mosques and temples that have been erected around the world — driven by the quest to express and explore holiness in space.
It is interesting that the Bible introduces holy time far before sacred space.¬
On Friday evening each week, Jewish families and congregations recite the verses from Genesis that describe the seventh day — the last Day (or "phase") of Creation.¬ On this day, there was nothing left to create — for the world and all its myriad parts, with all the life of the earth, the oceans and the air, were complete.¬ Even the first human being(s), carrying the Divine Image, were made already on the sixth day.¬
So what new element is introduced on the seventh day?
On the first six days, we see God exercise the quality of judgment.¬ God looks at what has been created and "behold it was good."¬ On the seventh day, we do not see God make a judgement, but God becomes a source of blessing and holiness.¬ We read "God blessed the seventh day and made it holy." All these concepts are intangible and invite us to reach beyond what is most familiar to us.
We are all created in the Divine Image — and perhaps that means we are called upon to be "Godlike."¬ We can give blessings and we can create holiness.¬
On Friday night, it is a Jewish tradition for parents to bless their children — for we have in some way "created" our children — and so by blessing our children we have the possibility to make them holy.
No matter which day you might observe as the Sabbath, let it be a day to set aside judgment and to experience the world of blessing and holiness.¬ Your blessing might be for your children or your parents, your friends, your teachers or your students.¬ You might experience sanctity within the secure walls of a house of worship amidst a community of faith or it may be on a walk along the Back Shore or out at sea.
This world that we touch is full of great edifices that we have built in space.¬
Our Temple community is soon to break ground on our own new building.¬ But Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel invites us all to encounter "palaces in time" — the days of sanctity that we fashion with our blessings and our souls.
May we all find these moments and share them with those we love.¬
Shalom.
Rabbi Samuel Barth is the spiritual leader of Temple Ahavat Achim (www.taagloucester.org) and can be reached at rebsami@gmail.com. Midweek Musings is a column rotated among Cape Ann clergy.
