When you’re a synagogue in the shadow of Six Flags, roller coasters are no
great amazement.
I sometimes think that our annual cycle of Jewish life has more highs, lows,
curves, thrills and chills than any of the offerings at Six Flags.
The weeks before Rosh HaShana seem like that slow
ascent to the top of the ride, and we hit the peak by the last
sounding of the Shofar at Neila. Even as we become further
distant in time from Yom Kippur, we retain many of those
High Holy Day highs: The feelings of the majesty of a musical
and liturgical theme reserved for only three days a year,
the feelings that this will be the year in which I will commit
to that Jewish revitalization inspired by the observance, and
just simply the feeling of knowing that I did the right thing.
But, oh, the crash comes fast, precipitously, and with that same dizzying
expectation we know will happen as the car begins to pitch downward. The euphoria
wears off, the excuses begin, the pressures of the year exert emotional gforces
as we go up and down and upside down in all that modernity presents us.
Very often, I even need to remind myself of my own words spoken on yontif
as I go through the routinized but never boring year. My goal this year, and one
that I hope you will share with me, is to think of those three dimensions personal
and Jewish existence I discussed on Erev Yom Kippur – the areas of self, time,
and space.
Even caught up in the daily traffic, I want to remind myself of the dimension
of self. That self needs physical and spiritual nourishment. That self needs continual
self-awareness and on-going acts of teshuva, tefilah, and tzedakah. That
self and all that it implies individually and Jewishly needs to control time and
conform time to Jewish time.
Shabbat and Festival timing grounds my “self” to seek a life of meaning. I
don’t need to be in a hurry when I am on Jewish time. I can spare an extra 40
minutes if there is even the most remote chance that something in those 40 minutes
can touch my “self”.
I need to remember that my sacred space of Israel and synagogue help me
define the actions of my life when I am in worldly space since Jewish spirituality
is not the isolation of self. Furthermore, I must strive to remember that worldly
space is not profane space because I can do my role to infuse Kedusha, holiness,
into every aspect of every space.
We plunge downward until it is time for Chanukah when the car descends a
little more rapidly as we are weighed down by the results of latkes and sufganiyot.
Purim is literally the big high if you take that Talmudic drinking mitzvah literally.
Pesach is there a little more than midway through the year just to elevate us once
again.
I guess I’m a little tired of all of those highs and lows. Maybe for this year,
I’ll work a little harder just to take the high road for the entire year. It will be a lot
less stressful to the system and the psyche and perhaps might be the best “Jewish
self” work I could do.

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