________________________________
January Full Moon Letter
15 Shvat
Seeing
(hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, intuiting)
Fellow Pilgrims,
When I was 14 years old, I became somewhat obsessed with the idea of traveling to Israel. My parents didn’t have the money to send me, so they tried to talk me out of it. As a child I was painfully shy, but also determined and stubborn. I didn’t know the language of pilgrimage, but I knew that I was supposed to step outside of my suburban New Jersey confines and into a larger world where I would walk the “Holy Land.”
I searched for summer programs and found one that would have us in a camp during the week and then would place us in Israeli homes on the weekend. I approached the local rabbis in my county and persuaded them to donate money for my trip from their discretionary funds. I continued to argue with my parents. In a last ditch attempt to dissuade me, they said that I was too young to appreciate what I would be seeing. In that very moment I made a vow to “see,” to not miss the holiness and meaning of each and every sight.
It was that vow that transformed my journey. I refused to accept that a limitation (in this case my age) might prevent me from fully experiencing the depth, magic, sparkle, significance or mystery of “The Holy Land.” And so, partly to prove to my parents and myself that I was indeed old enough, I took up the challenge of “seeing”… experiencing each moment with absolute attention.
There was a moment during that journey when my eyes opened to see in a new way and I learned an important lesson. We were touring an ancient ruin, a prison in Acco. I looked through the stone portal and the city scene in front of me dissolved. In its place I saw the ancient winding streets, with donkeys instead of cars – a dusty and colorful marketplace of another time.
I watched in wonder. Later I told my roommate what I had seen. She reported this to the camp director, who promptly called me into his office for a friendly interrogation. I told him what I had seen. He insisted that I had imagined it. I realized that if I didn’t “confess” that I had imagined it, he was going to have to send me home. I told him what he wanted to hear and learned from then on to keep my visions secret.
When I think back on that journey that I took nearly 40 years ago, I am inspired to renew my vow of “seeing” deeply. I am also aware of the limitations and obstacles to perception. My vision is often conditioned or limited by my expectations and beliefs. Sometimes my mind is so busy with its thinking about things, that I don’t perceive that which is right in front of me. And when I don’t fully honor the visions that I receive, the eyes of my heart grow dim.
In preparing for our pilgrimage, I suggest that you take up the challenge of “seeing,” of opening the eyes of your heart, and feeling into a place. I have found that this wider and deeper perception comes when I can attain a certain inner stillness. It takes patience. And it requires an open heart.
When I pray the first blessing of the Amida, the standing silent prayer that is core to our liturgy, I receive this moment as an opportunity to open my heart to the power of our ancestors. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that before spiritual practice we must bow to 3 different kinds of lineage. I bow to my blood ancestors, to the ancestors of my heart, and to the ancestors that have walked the land on which I stand. In honoring the ancestors, we ask for their blessing, acknowledge their gifts to us, learn from their mistakes, and open to the power of their wisdom and love.
In preparation for our journey, I ask you to begin to practice this “inner bowing”. Feel the presence of the ancestors within you, waiting to be healed, waiting to serve you. Imagine that right here, on the ground on which you sit, someone has died, someone was born, someone experienced the Presence of a great Mystery…. That someone, your ancestor, bequeathed to you the fruit of their wondrous life.
This full moon, we celebrate the holiday of Tu’B’Shvat, the Birthday of the Trees. We taste and savor the fruit from the Tree of Life. We taste the miraculous in what we had thought was ordinary. We honor the ones who had enough vision and generosity to plant seeds. We receive the gifts of the past and in turn we plant seeds that will bear fruit for our descendents.
As we walk the “Holy Land” together, let’s make a vow to “see”, to not miss a moment. And though the land we will travel might seem foreign, keep in your heart the knowledge of our kinship with all life. The same Tree connects us all, nourishes us all.
When I travel I am guided by a compelling soul-yearning to experience all of what it means to be human, to step into the larger world, to see deeply, taste fully and “know” beyond my conceptions. The requirement for pilgrimage is Self-awareness. And Self-awareness is also the goal. I offer the intention for our journey that everything that we see “out there,” be a reminder of some wondrous part of ourselves that we might have forgotten.
In grateful anticipation of our journey together,
Shefa
Monday, January 21, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
IN SERVICE - Rabbi Shefa's Third Pilgrimage Letter
In Service
Dear Fellow Pilgrims,
When I was inviting people to come on this trip, there was one woman who said, “No, I couldn’t go without my husband, because I would come home transformed and that would put a distance between us.” That made me start thinking about an important aspect of Pilgrimage.
We journey for those we love; we journey for our community; we make our pilgrimage on behalf of others. We journey so that we might bring back the riches, the wisdom, the treasures of new perspectives that might benefit and honor our partner, family, friends, neighbors, and communities.
In 1980, when I traveled through Jordan, I stayed in the ancient and mysterious city of Petra. Before the government turned this place into a tourist attraction, it was populated by Bedouins who made their home in the caves of this beautiful hidden city that was carved out of the red rock. My traveling partner and I were offered one of the caves as our home. While we were there, the Bedouins invited us to a festival, celebrating the safe return of someone who had made a pilgrimage. They slaughtered a goat and partied through the night, honoring the pilgrim who had traveled to a holy place on behalf of his community. They expressed their gratefulness and received him back as a hero who had brought honor to them through his journey.
For whom do you journey? Is it possible to dedicate the efforts, adventures, pleasures and discomforts of this journey in service to those you love?
Sometimes I feel a greediness in me, a desire to consume the world, take in the sights, “have” amazing experiences, be filled with the exotic. I find that the energy of this desire can be transformed by a sense of service. My beloved husband Rachmiel will not be traveling with me on this journey. I would like to receive his blessing, allow him to send me and then I would like to bring something back to him that represents my love, a love that has been expanded by what I have seen and felt in the holy places we are visiting.
When I told Reb Zalman about our Pilgrimage, he instructed me to go to the elders of the Jemez Pueblo and ask for an Eagle feather that would represent the people of this land. He said to bring our Eagle medicine to the people of the south and receive their Condor medicine in return. In this way I would be journeying to unite our tribes of north and south in peace and generosity.
In the Torah’s commandment concerning Pilgrimage we are told not to come empty-handed. What will you bring? What is your offering? I have learned that the only true gift I have to give is my Self. Our challenge is to give ourselves consciously and generously.
(In profound understanding of this aspect of sacred travel, Hune has set up opportunities, optional of course, for us to be of service to the people of the land we are visiting. He will tell you more about this in time.)
Meanwhile, at this time of the full moon I ask you to contemplate and begin building the kavanah, the intention for your pilgrimage. Will you journey to offer praise and thanksgiving for the fullness of your life? Will you journey to ask for healing for yourself or others? Will you journey to remember what you have forgotten in your busy-ness? Will you journey to ask for guidance and receive your mission? For whom do you journey?
If it feels right, you can begin to talk with those for whom you will journey, offering your intention and asking for their blessing.
In grateful anticipation for our journey together,
Shefa
Dear Fellow Pilgrims,
When I was inviting people to come on this trip, there was one woman who said, “No, I couldn’t go without my husband, because I would come home transformed and that would put a distance between us.” That made me start thinking about an important aspect of Pilgrimage.
We journey for those we love; we journey for our community; we make our pilgrimage on behalf of others. We journey so that we might bring back the riches, the wisdom, the treasures of new perspectives that might benefit and honor our partner, family, friends, neighbors, and communities.
In 1980, when I traveled through Jordan, I stayed in the ancient and mysterious city of Petra. Before the government turned this place into a tourist attraction, it was populated by Bedouins who made their home in the caves of this beautiful hidden city that was carved out of the red rock. My traveling partner and I were offered one of the caves as our home. While we were there, the Bedouins invited us to a festival, celebrating the safe return of someone who had made a pilgrimage. They slaughtered a goat and partied through the night, honoring the pilgrim who had traveled to a holy place on behalf of his community. They expressed their gratefulness and received him back as a hero who had brought honor to them through his journey.
For whom do you journey? Is it possible to dedicate the efforts, adventures, pleasures and discomforts of this journey in service to those you love?
Sometimes I feel a greediness in me, a desire to consume the world, take in the sights, “have” amazing experiences, be filled with the exotic. I find that the energy of this desire can be transformed by a sense of service. My beloved husband Rachmiel will not be traveling with me on this journey. I would like to receive his blessing, allow him to send me and then I would like to bring something back to him that represents my love, a love that has been expanded by what I have seen and felt in the holy places we are visiting.
When I told Reb Zalman about our Pilgrimage, he instructed me to go to the elders of the Jemez Pueblo and ask for an Eagle feather that would represent the people of this land. He said to bring our Eagle medicine to the people of the south and receive their Condor medicine in return. In this way I would be journeying to unite our tribes of north and south in peace and generosity.
In the Torah’s commandment concerning Pilgrimage we are told not to come empty-handed. What will you bring? What is your offering? I have learned that the only true gift I have to give is my Self. Our challenge is to give ourselves consciously and generously.
(In profound understanding of this aspect of sacred travel, Hune has set up opportunities, optional of course, for us to be of service to the people of the land we are visiting. He will tell you more about this in time.)
Meanwhile, at this time of the full moon I ask you to contemplate and begin building the kavanah, the intention for your pilgrimage. Will you journey to offer praise and thanksgiving for the fullness of your life? Will you journey to ask for healing for yourself or others? Will you journey to remember what you have forgotten in your busy-ness? Will you journey to ask for guidance and receive your mission? For whom do you journey?
If it feels right, you can begin to talk with those for whom you will journey, offering your intention and asking for their blessing.
In grateful anticipation for our journey together,
Shefa
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
