Practice makes Epiphany

BS"D

Yesterday while playing the guitar I discovered a new way to play an F. It was so totally excellent a moment, you have no idea. I've never really been able to play an F with consistency-- my rinky dink pinkies just don't cooperate on that one. So to finally work out that F was a moment of real joy for me. Once I got humming along, working it in to the other chord progressions-- suddenly all of those broken chords with missing F's became whole. Bits and pieces I'd been working on for years suddenly made sense and in one moment my musical skills took a giant leap forward.

Beautiful.

My prayer life is like this. Sometimes I will struggle and struggle with something, seemingly to no end and then all of a sudden I get it and everything falls into place. Often when I'm in a struggling place I try to remind myself that it's the daily practice, the daily to and fro, the wrestling that brings about those moments of epiphany.

Practice Works.

I've decided to apply to Aleph's Rabbinic Program. I figure six years of wrestling with rabbinical school should be fertile ground for epiphanal moments. So again, to all my friends and supporters who have been pushing and prodding-- okay, okay, I get it. I get it. I really do, I get it.

Patience and Faith.

Thanks to Bar Mitzvah Eli Siegle for his great d'var torah presentation in which he stated that holy space is a place which cultivates in us patience and faith. In his case the holy space in question was Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. In my case the holy space is in my heart. Same thing, eh?

Holy of Holies.

I have a lot of work to do this year in my inner holy of holies, the inside of my inside of my inside. I'm concentrating my inner work for a while on forgiveness, because that's where I think it's at. I just finished telling a class that we're constantly working on overlapping meditations on forgiveness. That forgiveness is central to our Jewish being. But you know, it's not so simple. Who are we forgiving? Ourselves? G-d? Others? It's quite complicated, actually. Somehow though, I think it's not complicated at all, that it's really quite simple, if only we'd see. And now I do see, and it is simple after all.

For Now.

I was reading in a commentary on the haftarot about Elijah and the prophetical schools. Prophetical Schools? Why did this not ever leap out at me before? It's so astonishing a concept, prophetical schools. Apparently there were so many prophetical students, they had to split them up into smaller bands of fifty for reasons of safety. Since when is fifty a small number of prophets? Wow! It really makes you think, eh?

Red and Gold.

What is the significance of the juxtaposition of the golden calf and the red hefer? Especially when Shabbat Parah and Ki Tisa fall on the same Shabbos? I know someone out there has the answer to this one. There has to be something, it's too tempting a topic for exploration for there not to be.

Again.

I taught a class last week on the siddur and I loved it. I had such a great time, I can't wait to do it again. Given the opportunity to teach with regularity, I think I could really develop a fluid style for this kind of class. Thanks to my friends in Eugene for bringing me along. Let's do it again sometime.

Blessings to you all!