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Put a Little Love in Your Heart: An Elul Meditation

 Dear Friends,


As I write this blog, we are less than two weeks away from the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.

In the month which precedes the new year which is called Elul, we begin our preparation for the new year with reflection and contemplation about our lives and changes we wish to make in the coming year.

Recently, while traveling and listening to satellite radio, I heard that it was Jackie DeShannon's 83rd birthday.  One of my favorite songs when I was younger and even today is the following:

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Put a Little Love in Your Heart
Song by Jackie DeShannon
OverviewLyricsListenOther recordingsArtistsComposers
As I reflect on all the hatred that has occurred during the past year, I remember that when I first heard this song, I said that what I wanted to do when I grew up was to put a little love in people's hearts where kindness would be their guide.  I was 15 years old and have some fleeting memory (please don't fact check me) that I actually asked my piano teacher to get me the sheet music so I could learn to play this on the piano.

This week at George Mason University I am convening a working group of interested students and others who are interested in how to educate students on our campus about the complexities and nuances of the conflict in the Middle East.  As I teach more and more students in my classes, students with whom I have contact  are eager to find a way for the parties involved to live together peacefully.  As we approach the one year anniversary of the Hamas attack, my fervent prayer is that we will build relationships on our campus that will allow us to realize we gain more by learning about and listening to each other than continuing to fight with each other.

In my Bible as Literature class, I recently taught the students that if Cain and Abel had talked through their conflict, instead of Cain murdering Abel, we would have a different paradigm for how to resolve conflicts  If only there had been a local coffee shop where they could have resolved their differences....

I hope that as we read the lyrics we will think about what we can do to build a future filled with love, not hate, with caring communication, rather than angry words and deeds, and where kindness will be our guide.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace,

Rabbi Bruce Aft
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