It's Time To Begin Again

Feeling stuck? Exhausted? Overwhelmed? Wish you could start everything all over again? Then you have something in common with Moshe after he smashed the first draft of those tablets.

During our virtual service on August 18th, Rabbi Steven encouraged us to take the first step toward spiritually preparing ourselves for the High Holy Days.

Mishkan Chicago's High Holiday tickets are now on sale to the general public! For scheduling, pricing, venue information, and tickets, follow this link:

https://www.mishkanchicago.org/high-holy-days/

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For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

Shabbat shalom, folks. Thanks for joining say so nice to see you. So the Torah tells us that after Moses witnessed I'm going to I'm going way back in the Torah here, so bear with me. So the Torah tells us the after Moses witnessed our ancestors worshipping the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai, he destroyed the tablets that were intended to be a sign of the covenant between God and the Jewish people. After being made to recognize their air, Moses ascends the mountain a second time. Well, he'll stay for 40 days and 40 Nights, creating a new set of tablets with his own hand. Now Tradition holds that he began his journey this second time around to the peak of Mount Sinai on the first of El today that he returned four days later on the 10th of Tishrei. That is Yom Kippur war. The Rabbi's teach at these weeks that Moses was on Mount Sinai, and the people waited at the bottom were used by our ancestors as a period of collective reflection, repair and realignment. So as I mentioned, today, we begin the month of Elul. With it, we enter that same period of reflection, repair, and realignment, a practice that we call to Shiva. And I know that some people like to translate this word as repentance, but I feel like this doesn't quite capture the necessary stages of what we're trying to do here I'll get back to that in just a little bit. Like it was for our ancestors to tshuva is a collective effort in several ways. First, it's something that we do together as individuals working side by side on our respective mistakes and missteps. It's something that also requires us to be in relationship with one another, both as the one who asks for forgiveness, and as the one who gives it and it's something that prompts us to think about how we have contributed, in ways big or small, to societal trends of neglect or misuse or mistreatment. And something I imagine is at the forefront of many minds, as the effects of climate change become frequent and more severe, as evident in the fires that I spoke about earlier. On various other corners of the world. I as well. This is a lot. It's a lot. And we know that we can't wait until the last few minutes of Yom Kippur war to start taking the work of to shuba. Seriously. This is why we've been given this period of time to engage in the task of reflecting on our behavior of repairing what we have broken. And if we aligning ourselves with the values you want to live by reflection, repair realignment. Where do we begin? When there's so much to do? The individual work, the relational work, the collective work when there's so much to do, where do we begin? The month of Elul is also a particularly significant time in our calendar at Mishkan. Because it is when we finished the ritual elements of conversion for exploring Judaism students, just this morning we actually welcomed a couple brand new Jews into our community and I hope you'll come celebrate them and are nearly 40. You heard that right are nearly 40 conversion candidates next Friday. We'll we'll be showering them with love and blessings and welcome. We use several locations for the ritual immersion that marks the end of the conversion process including Lake Michigan. And today this morning, we're at the community mitfa of the conservative movement up in Wilmette, which is run by our very own on a saelig an amazing Mishkan I and she was helping guide several of our candidates this morning and after the dunk for the first time and said the blessing for immersion row has had an eye level Hany Melaka alum, I share conditional bits that have Fitzy Vanu all had to be loved bless it as the one who brings holiness into our lives through our actions asking us to immerse ourselves in the living waters of the Mikvah kind of noted that this was their very first mitzvah as a Jew, their very first. It's a really profound experience witnessing someone become a Jew. And it struck me in that moment, how incredible it was to see someone do their very first ritual act as part of our people becoming part of this covenant or relationship that began with Moses and the Israelites standing before God, holding those tablets at Mount Sinai. And I thought about how each of these students, every single one of them in conversations we had throughout the year, had expressed anxiety or fear or concern about knowing enough to be a Jew. It's a feeling I know myself having gone through that process now 13 years ago, and it's a lot. It's a lot to take on a 5000 year old tradition. And with it the accumulated knowledge of our people and the countless and sometimes contradictory ways to do Jewish in the world yet here they were here they were starting a lifetime of doing needs vote as a Jew, with that first simple sacred act of immersing in the mikvah. So when these conversations happen about do I know enough, am I ever going to know enough? Am I ever going to be ready one of my favorite stories to share with our students are really active with anyone who ever feels like they're a little bit lost, or they know less than everybody else, or that they don't know anything at all, is about Akiva and Yosef, more commonly known as Rabbi Akiva. He was a leading scholar of the first century and a major contributor to the earliest strata of rabbinic texts, the rabbinic texts that shape our tradition today. Yet, Rabbi Akiva came from a very humble background. He received no formal education as a child, some say that he was illiterate. And he worked as a shepherd for many, many decades to make ends meet you so poor, in fact, that we're told that he slept on the old straw that he had fed his sheep. Earlier that day, they didn't eat that that was that was all he could afford to sleep on. His wife's encouragement, he began his studies to become a rabbi at age 40, sitting with school children to learn the letters of the alphabet. And I want you to imagine this, this individual, right 40 years old, has been a shepherd for decades, doesn't know a single letter of the alphabet sitting down next to children to recite, lift that that gives me I don't think they use the Wi Fi button back then. But bear with me, right? That that gimbal dial that hey, we now know from our vantage point history, is that Rabbi Akiva will become one of the greatest sages of our tradition. So much so that he has called in the Talmud in those rabbinic texts Roesch Lahug, Amin, chief among the wise, the wisest of the wise, the most wise. But here's the thing. Here's the thing about Rabbi Akiva. I imagine he was a lot like these exploring Judaism students, the ones that had conversations with earlier, unsure of whether he knew enough or was capable enough, or was smart enough to become a rabbi, but also, but also like each of the New Jews were welcoming into our community this year, Rabbi Akiva knew that the only way to know anything to become skilled or more knowledgeable, was to take that first step. So maybe you're feeling stuck. Maybe you're feeling exhausted, or overwhelmed or unsure. And that is okay. The point is not to not feel that way. The point is to begin the project of the season, step by step, knowing that the only way forward is well to start heading in the direction to start going forward. This is why we're given the entire month of Elul. And some tools to help us along the way these 40 days right from now, to Yong ki pours that final final shofar blasts, that signals the end of this process. So perhaps, it's hearing the shofar every day, or every few days, a little alarm clock to remind us that the time is now to begin this work. And maybe it's reciting Psalm 27, which we'll sing in just a moment, hearing the melodies of the season at morning minion, once the whole and a few weeks to begin to stir that feeling within us. That could be attending a spiritual prep course, or starting a journal, or creating a vision board, or taking a long walk with a trusted friend or having a long phone call to trusted therapists, whatever it is, that you need to just begin to take that initial step into the work of the season that that that is what this moment is about. And to know that how ever you approach the season. Know that even if you are nowhere near the end of this journey, even if that final shofar blasts, that final moment at the end of Yom Kippur feels so far away. Know that you already have what it takes within you to begin it. You already have what it takes within you to take that first step. One day you'll wake up and you'll be the journey and you'll look back and say wow, I didn't know I had it with me. But now I know. Now I know is there all along