Toward Shabbat

April 28, 2016
20 Nisan 5776

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I went to the JCC to attend the Senior Lunch. The senior group often gets together for lunch and a speaker or entertainer and yesterday they had a Kosher-for-Passover lunch with my friend Elaine Blanchard, a professional storyteller, sharing stories and wisdom.

As a storyteller myself, I love hearing storytellers at work.
We're all storytellers - our brains are hard-wired to tell stories and make meaning of our lives. Those who have studied the art and artistry of storytelling have a fond place in my heart. I love being captivated by stories with good messages. Elaine shared a number of them.

One story Elaine shared was about a man named Mr. Clean who each morning was so fastidious about cleanliness that he would take all the organs of his body out and wash them - his liver, his kidneys, his stomach, until all parts of him were perfectly clean and ready to start the day. Everyone knew Mr. Clean, and he was well-liked and respected in his neighborhood.

One morning he woke up and did his usual routine. He went out for groceries and on his way there, he saw an elderly woman trying to cross the street and he knocked her over. He then passed a person who was homeless and asking for change and he sneered at him and refused to donate. He went into his regular grocery store and started throwing produce at people and carrying on. 

He went to pay for a few groceries, and the clerk, who knew him for many years and had watched with horror as he did damage to the store, asked him "Mr. Clean, what on earth has gotten into you today? You never act like this..." Mr. Clean thought about his behavior, and it finally dawned on him....he left his heart at home in the sink. He went home to retrieve it, helped the elderly lady and the homeless person, and paid and apologized for all the damage he caused at the grocery store. The moral of the story is....wherever you go, make sure you take your heart with you.

I was thinking about this story in relation to Passover and specifically about the journeys we take on the road to freedom. I'm imagining that when our ancestors left Egypt in the middle of the night, they were scared, excited about the future but unsure what lay ahead for them. The same is true for us when we set out on journeys - we have a general sense of where we want to go, and we know that life is unscripted and there will be roadblocks and speed bumps along the way. Are we nice to others even when we're scared of our future? Do we carry our hearts with us at all times, or only sometimes?

This first week of the Omer has encouraged us to think about when we share our heart and when we don't, and how we interact in the world from a place of love.

Sunday (May 1) starts Week 2 of the Omer, which is the week of Gevurah, translated as discipline, or strength (it means both). 

Questions to ponder in the second week of the Omer:

When I criticize someone, do I do so with love?
Does my ego find any satisfaction in others failures?
Am I disciplined enough in my life? Am I organized?
How am I at time-management?
Is my discipline compassionate or am I always chasing perfection and never at peace with myself, with others, and with the world?
Is my discipline consistent or only when forced?
Do I follow-through on my commitments?
Is there humility in my discipline or am I arrogant and condescending towards others? Is my way always the right way or am I open to learning other ways of doing things?
Does my discipline bring me closer to others or away from them?
Does it weaken or strengthen me?
Does it bring out my worst or my best?
What changes can I make to improve this area of my life?

Whatever your answers, I wish us all luck and strength as we examine our lives. Personal transformation is hard work - a friend described it as like changing a tire while you're still driving the car. How wonderful that Judaism offers us so many ways to think about our place in the world and how we might grow and come closer to God.

Please see our website for the fabulous Omer Challenge schedule - lots of great events coming up soon, including this Sunday at the Soup Kitchen - we're still looking for volunteers to join us in this important mitzvah.

Yontif begins again tonight. Services tomorrow (Friday) will be at 7 am.
Services Shabbat morning will be at 9:15, and will include the Yizkor service, and some more Passover humor, which we started last week.

Passover ends Saturday night at 8:27 and your chametz may be eaten again at 8:29. (The contract I signed with Cheryl expires at 8:28, so at 8:29 you're free to eat your chametz again!).

Happy Passover and Shabbat Shalom to all.

Blessings,

Rabbi Ilan