Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet and the Winds of Change

Sharing my latest version of the story of Jonah, telling the story with select Hebrew words from the Biblical text woven in as chant. This is about 14 minutes long. The painting of Jonah, whose name means “Dove”, is the first in a Jonah series painted by my friend Ronnie Weyl.

Opening to Divine Forgiveness: A new Hebrew chant

I am writing this message the morning before Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement/At-ONE-met, the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar). My community has a daily morning minyan (prayer service), now on Zoom, and I am subscribed to the What’s App group that informs us whether more people are needed to make the minyan (ten people are needed to say certain key prayers). My son went off to school and I got the message that more people were needed, and I felt called to show up. Today, I was the 10th person. I was moved to experience that my very presence made the difference for this communal moment.

When we got to the daily Amidah (a set of 19 blessings that are central to the service), I found myself drawn to the words of the 6th blessing — mochel v’soleach atah— which essentially means that “You are a forgiving God”. I started chanting these words. Tears came. I also added the final words from the blessing— chanun hamarbeh lisloach— You are gracious in Your forgiveness. I have prayed these words many times. Today they found a deep place in my heart, a deeper knowing that God forgives, God loves, that I am loved in my imperfections and mistakes and misjudgments. The message is both personal and universal— God loves everyone, each of us, including those whom we judge and those whom we fear.

I have been working on a performance piece telling the Biblical story of Jonah (stay tuned for a recording), which is traditionally read at the end of Yom Kippur, and have been sitting with how hard it is for Jonah to accept God’s forgiving nature towards the people of Nineveh, who had been acting in wicked ways. It’s so hard for Jonah to reconcile that God would forgive this community that he declares that death would be better than life. This story touches on a deep truth about human nature— we can get stuck in our limited perspective. The words of this chant, and so many of the prayers of Yom Kippur, challenge us to crack open our perspective, to see through God’s loving and forgiving eyes— both towards ourselves, towards our loved ones, and even towards those whom we might consider enemies.

Gmar hatimah tovah. May you be sealed in the Book of Life and Forgiveness!

mochel v’soleach atah chanun hamarbeh lisloach מוֹחֵל וְסוֹלֵֽחַ אָֽתָּה חַנּוּן הַמַּרְבֶּה לִסְלֽוֹח

Download chant here

Al Het: Seeking Atonement for the Climate Crisis

Sharing an updated version of my Al Het for the Climate Crisis. May your observance of Yom Kippur restore you to greater wholeness, right relationship, and courage.

Here is the pdf version to download.

A Great Dark Dread (Genesis 15:12): Teaching for Meditation

Sharing my teaching from our Tuesday morning Jewish meditation group, one week prior to the presidential election of 2020. Our group began meeting in September 2016 and has been meeting weekly on Tuesday mornings for the past four years. We are cultivating groundedness, heart-opening, and lightness of being as we move through these dark times in loving community. The chant is an original composition, drawn from Genesis 15:1, and the spoken teaching begins about 5 minutes into the recording. In our group, we sit for 20 minutes after the teaching each week. Sitting together in intentional silence, even over Zoom, is a powerful way to build community.

Racial Justice: Taking a Knee

When is it worth venturing out during the age of the coronavirus, if one does not serve on the frontlines?  Over the past almost three months, my immediate family has mostly stayed at home, connecting to the outside world through our computers and phones.  I have taken an occasional distance walk with a friend and made a visit to the grocery store about every 2 weeks.  Most days, my primary trip outside is a solo walk to refresh my spirit, during which I open to the beauty of a flower, a puddle, or a fallen branch.  For the time being, this is our new normal.

Yet today, I was moved to venture a little further from home and show up to a racial justice protest in Centre City Philadelphia, sponsored by POWER Live Free, an organization which focuses on ending police violence and mass incarceration. Philadelphia is one of the cities that has experienced rioting and looting and we have been under 6PM-6AM curfew the past several nights.  The National Guard was called in earlier this week.  Our neighborhood, 20 minutes away, has been mostly quiet, although local businesses were broken into Saturday night.  

It was important for me to witness the homeless men resting in the heat of the day as I parked my car, a visceral reminder of the impact of racism and extreme poverty. It was important for me to witness the National Guard stationed in riot gear next to City Hall and to feel the anger, fear, and confusion that this aroused.  It was important to be present at the protest, which took place on the southwest corner of City Hall at the Octavius Catto Memorial, a Memorial erected in 2017 to honor the memory of an influential 19th century African American educator and civil rights leader.  Due to a helicopter whirring above us, I could not hear the words spoken during the protest , and I mostly stayed on the edges of the group to minimize possible exposure to COVID-19; however, I could feel the powerful energy arising from this group of people of faith who gathered together to call for justice.  When it was time, I took a knee, along with everyone else, and then was moved to bow my head to the ground in humility, in atonement, and in gratitude for life.