Where Can We Find Holiness

Special Note:

This will probably be my last blog for awhile although who knows what may occur to  inspire a message.

Enjoy the summer.

Bruce


 Dear Friends,


This week we experience the Jewish Festival of Shavuot which celebrates the revelation at Mt. Sinai when the Jewish People received the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai.

I  want to talk about the revelations we have in our daily lives.  How many of us are aware of the  miracles that surround us.   There is a beautiful  Jewish teaching that G-d appears whenever and wherever we let G-d into our lives.

In Jewish worship, we have a prayer  which is based upon the words  of the Prophet Isaiah.  "Holy holy holy, the whole earth is full of G-d's glory.

I  hope that during the summer when we all (hopefully) have an opportunity to relax and reflect, we  will recognize that there may be holiness in our everyday experiences.  I was surfing the internet and found the  following poem and comments about Martin Buber that I hope will inspire you to live a more sacred life. (I searched for Jewish poems on holiness and found a site, "Parasha Poems")

Holiness, it transpires,
is not living hermit-like
in the rarefied air
of a mountain peak,
filling up days
in meditation and prayer,
spending nights seeking God
in the star-sprinkled sky.
It’s transcending the messiness,
the turmoil of our lives;
quelling impatience
with the people we love;
opening hearts
to the needy, the other;
sowing sparks of light
in every mundane hour.

The Etz Hayim commentary of the Jewish Publication Society translation  and commentary on this Parashah ponders the nature of holiness, and cites Martin Buber (among others) who says that holiness is found not in rising above the level of one’s neighbours but in relationships, in human beings recognising the latent divinity of other people, even as God recognises the latent divinity in each of us. He adds that Judaism does not divide life into the holy and the profane but into the holy and the not-yet-holy.

I  hope that you enjoy opportunities to renew relationships that are important to you and that we will appreciate that there may be holiness in the least expected places.  Enjoy searching...

Be well and safe over the summer.

Rabbi Bruce Aft


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