LOG
OY.
Our Blessing for Sanctifying our Hands.
Oy: that word we say when filled with so much joy we have no words to express….and that same word when we are filled with so much misery and angst that we have no words to express. But OY says it all, and it gets the point across in ways no other words do. And when we say it now, it might contain both of those experiences, for certainly we are also seeing an outpouring of caring along with anxiety about Covid19.
I am not going to write lengthy words of wisdom. I am just offering you three things:
1) Along with two incredibly talented and beautiful Jewish musicians, Cindy Paley (my cousin) and Asaf Ophir, I have been heavy at work preparing a YOUTUBE of a Pesach Seder. It has my art and commentary, and their wonderful music. Feel free to share it widely, especially for those who may not have any other way to participate in a seder. Watch it “with” your friends and relatives at a distance.
2) A poster (please feel free to print out, reproduce, forward, whatever…no permission needed.) If you want one printed on art quality paper, as a relic from this historic period, click here.
3) I am writing a letter each week to the residents of Rhoda Goldman Plaza where I do pastoral care. I will eventually collect them here as set in blogs. Feel free to check in and read the latest one. Here’s one from last week, attached. Scroll down.
SO. Stay healthy, do your civic duty in distancing, wearing a mask, washing hands, so that you and those you love and even strangers (but who is a stranger in this situation?) may live in good health and have many more years to bless the Ultimate Healer and Creator of All, who often works in strange and wondrous and terrifying ways to send important messages to the world… AMEN.
Tu BiShvat
A beautiful Tu BiShvat seder with emphasis on the spiritual meaning of the holiday.
As we begin the climb out of winter, our Jewish holy day, The New Year of the Trees, draws us forward. Erev Tu BiShvat falls on February 9 this year, a Sunday. This holiday means more than ever in our current historical period, not only in reminding us of Nature’s fragile ecology, but also the profoundity of Creation itself. I encourage everyone to take the time out to refresh our awareness of the miracle in which we live, and be inspired to love and respect it.
Full directions for sharing your own Tu Bishvat seder are included in this book. It’s emphasis is on the Tree of Life as understood by the mystics of Sfat in the 16th C.
Profusely illustrated.
October 27, One Year Later
The Tree of Life is Weeping, a Memorial to October 27, 2018.
The world has kept turning, and we find ourselves approaching the one year mark since the tragic and shocking shooting in Pittsburgh. There are many ways to show the three congregations whose home was the Tree of Life* Or L’Simcha building that we have not forgotten, that we are thinking of them with compassion and support as they approach this one year mark. Each of those communities, Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life lost members in the shooting. Here is a link where people around the world will pause and be virtually together in memory at 2:00 PM PDT on Oct 27. I urge you to be a participant.
The AntiDefamation League also has eleven activities suggested in support, one for each of the lives lost, so that we make their memory a force for good in the world.
I am also offering reproductions of “The Tree of Life is Weeping” for your home or synagogue or Jewish Agency as a memorial. It comes with an accompanying certificate detailing the symbolism in the painting.
The proceeds from the sale of these prints are donated to HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. The fact that this agency has an office in the Jewish Community and Family Services building, near the synagogue is why the shooter chose to attack —because HIAS has for decades been a defender of legal immigrants and asylum seekers from all nations.
May our collective action not only memorialize, but make change in our struggling American culture to live up to our ideals.
Blessings, Rabbi Me’irah
A Tree Grows In Pittsburgh
The Tree of Life is Weeping
A part of me will forever remain there. I poured my heart into my painting, The Tree of Life is Weeping, and the community, survivors, families of the slain, first responders, received with their selves in tears and gratitude. We touched by means of the painting. To have my artwork contribute to healing—my soul has reached its pinnacle. I will write another blog about what I learned. I experienced a whole kehillah grieving, but also tremendous energy from the world community aimed toward supporting, giving, healing: Tikkun Olam in the deepest sense of the Hebrew word: correcting and transforming evil energy into good. The Tree of Life, the universal symbol of miraculous diversity, harmony, peace and thriving is being nourished by many, in the face of this tragic assault.
I have made a decision to offer giclee art prints of the painting for sale, and donate a portion of the proceeds to the Pittsburgh affiliate of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society or HIAS. Because the local community supported HIAS, it was targeted by the shooter.
Erev TuBishvat January 20
A wise person once taught me that even in the “dead” of winter, when all the flora looks inactive, if you look very closely, you will see tree buds beginning to form. Our beautiful Jewish holy day of the 15th day of the Jewish month of Sh’vat whispers this secret to us: The flow of a new growth cycle has begun. The life flow of the Universe is being restored. This holiday, The New Year of the Trees, has become the receptacle for our contemporary awareness of ecology and our longings for a thriving Planet Earth.
In contrast, TuBishvat Seder hearkens back to the purely spiritual interpretation of the holiday given by the Jewish mystics in the 16th Century Sfat. The book includes a brief history of the evolution of the holiday, instructions for the preparation of this simple “fruit seder,” and of course, beautiful illustrations of mystical paintings.
Tree with Roots in Heaven
Blessed are You in Your Coming
Blessed Are You in Your Coming
We learn from our ancestor Abraham to welcome the guest: “He lifted up his eyes and saw three men standing opposite him; when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the door of the tent and bowed low to the earth…’Pass not away from your servant….wash your feet and recline under a tree and I will fetch a morsel of bread’…..” Gen 18:2-3
Sarah hastened to make ‘cakes’ and a feast was prepared for the strangers, who, by the way, turned out to be angels. How WE are blessed when we take people into our homes, share meals and conversation, face to face, making memories, encountering angels.
This newest painting states the ancient blessing, uttered by Moses (Deut 28:6)
but this time in the Hebrew feminine.
It comes in three sizes, suitable for the front door, or hang on the wall: 8.5x11” $65.00, or 14 x 19” $250. Other sizes can be special ordered.
It also works as a card for births, weddings, going off to college, moving, housewarming, and even as a condolence card.
Gratitude
The Tree of Life is Weeping
It’s an antidote to guilt.
It fills us up to overflowing.
It doesn’t hurt at all.
It prepares us for whatever may come.
It makes life better in every way.
Try it. You’ll like it.
I am grateful to let you know that I will have a comprehensive solo exhibit,
“Visual Portals to Sacred Texts”
at The Sequoias, 1400 Geary Blvd., San Francisco
Nov 27-Jan 4. Opening reception Thursday, Nov. 29, 3:30-5:00 PM.
My newest painting, a memorial to the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue community, will be shown for the first time.
When we feel like we have a minimum of influence to make change, we can still practice gratitude, and it opens our hearts to do what we can to make things better.
Blessings for a meaningful Thanksgiving,
Rabbi Me’irah
Here They Come, Ready or Not!
Do you ever feel that the holidays come around too fast, "before I am ready"?
Do you ever feel, as I do, that the holidays come around too fast, "before I am ready"? This year, I've come to see that that is just the point! We're not ready! We're never going to BE ready.
We plod along, day to day, in what the sages regard as a half-sleep state. Get up. Feed the cats. Get dressed. Get the tasks done that need to be done for today. Go to bed.
But our holy days build a seasonal structure in which we make meaning from this plodding.
Our fall Yamim Nora'im remind us that life doesn't go on forever, and that now, NOW is the time to think about that. What spiritual and moral business have we been putting off? What must we do THIS year?
Our Sages have wisely structured in the month of Elul preceding Rosh HaShanah to blow the shofar every morning and recite prayers of repentance. This creates the space to focus on what we need to change, the corrective course we need to take. Our evening of Slichot, preceding Rosh Hashanah by no more than a week, we will chant the seasonal melodies that hearken us. The mood begins to descend upon us and the holiday readies us!
And then, Rosh Hashanah has begun! For ten days we are elevated in our progressive spiritual ascent above this plodding plane. At Rosh Hashanah, we are reminded of the possibility of renewal, and at Yom Kippur, we practice facing our death along with a spiritual rebirth. Then we glide down with our transformed selves through Sukkot, the season of "Joy, nothing but joy!"
Are we ever "ready" for anything that happens in our lives? The holidays are here to pull and tug at us, to remind us, get us there, ready or not.
