Elul 8 Not the Same Old Story.

In the July/August issue of Yoga Chicago Magazine, there is a wonderful review of the 

The 12th Midwest Yoga Conference that took place this past May. "All for Love" was the theme this year and editor Sharon Steffensen writes the following about Seane Corn's class, "Yoga for a Broken Heart."

Seane Corn

"The physical body holds onto the anger and grief," said Seane. "We need to move the energy so that we ourselves don't become sick or depressed. Depression of emotions is a catalyst for depression."

....Ultimately, said Seane, "Forgive yourself for thinking it should have gone better. Forgive yourself for not saying or doing something differently. Name it, claim it, own it, and put it out into the universe. Don't hold onto it.. We can't allow grief to define the whole of our life, nor can we repress or shut it down.. Honor it, come back to the present, and then move on. We do this again and again because it is a process."

Although Seane Corn was speaking particularly about how she dealt with the anger and grief of her father's death, her teaching about working with our emotions is clear, helpful and very much about teshuva.  

To get in touch with our broken heart is not only about knowing and feeling pain, it also about being brave enough to release our pain.  To let it go.  Not easy, I know.  

One of my teachers, Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg once told me that I don't  have to live the same story over and over again.  I have a story. We all do.  A story about growing up, about things that have happened to us. A story about challenges and difficulties.  Sheila taught me that we are not our pain, suffering, grief, anger, guilt, sadness--these emotions and stories are part of us for sure, but they need not define us, nor prevent us from turning and re/turning. 

Today I can remember my story and know that I can begin to live a new story that will bring me to the one whom I am meant to be.  Here's to the challenge and the blessing! 

Elul 7 Seeking Sun~ a guest blogger!

This is a cross-post from my friend and colleague Rabbi Phyllis Sommer Her blog is Thoughts From Rabbi Phyllis, and she is also participating in #BlogElul.


THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 01, 2011

Seeking Sun: #BlogElul


I have a friend who loves the sun. Whenever we go out for lunch or coffee in any weather that remotely feels warm, she insists on sitting outside and preferably in the sun.

I don't remember always loving to sit outside. But since I've been her friend...it's my first instinct, even when I'm not with her. I didn't know how much I loved being in the fresh air!

But I don't really love sitting directly in the sun (as much as I've learned to love sitting outside). She has lovely tanned skin...but I get a big ol' red sunburn if overexposed. So we usually have to compromise, and look for seats that are partially in the shade. She gets the sunny seat, I get the shady one.

In my garden, we are growing sunflowers. We've never grown them before. I am shocked at how tall they have gotten, and with no flowers yet! But yesterday, I saw this peeking out....



Yes, we are going to have some sunflowers. They are peeking out into the sun, seeking light. Each of these flowers is reaching as high as they can for the sunniest sun they can get.

I thought I was going to write a post about sunflowers and how they track the sun, facing their beautiful heads up toward the brightest spot. But instead, I read this on Wikipedia:

A common misconception is that sunflowers track the sun. In fact, mature flowerheads typically face east and do not move. The leaves and buds of young sunflowers do exhibit heliotropism (sun turning). Their orientation changes from east to west during the course of a day. The movements become a circadian response and when plants are rotated 180 degrees, the old response pattern is still followed for a few days, with leaf orientation changing from west to east instead. The leaf and flowerhead bud phototropism occurs while the leaf petioles and stems are still actively growing, but once mature, the movements stop.

Oh my goodness, there's so much to unpack in that - I feel a million sermons coming on! But seriously...they face east? It's just too perfect. Please, though, read through it all again. Young sunflowers move and learn a response pattern to move. But when they are mature (and have stopped growing) the movements stop.

Just like sunflowers, when we stop growing, we stop moving.
Just like sunflowers, we seek the sun when we are young but our instinct is to find a direction and face it once we are older and set in our ways.

Elul is here to remind us that we are not meant to be that way. We can and should find a way to move and redirect and find the light as it moves through our lives in different ways.

I'm so glad that my friend taught me to seek the sun, even at an age when perhaps I was ready to stay set in my ways. I am so glad that I am able to learn and grow and change.

Each day, each moment, I am ready to seek the sunshine.

Elul 6 It takes a village

Elul Day 6~ I officiated at a wedding tonight and was reminded how the support of community and of loved ones can help us become the one who we are meant to be. Teshuva~returning is easier when others help point out the holiness/the light that is within you, but hasnot yet been revealed to you. Erev Tov ~to all a goodnight!

Elul 5 Returning to what matters

Gabi, my 9 year old wanted to make sure I was going to sing her 7 year old brother his bedtime prayers tonight even though his twin sister was at a sleepover.  I said "yes" and then she quietly asked me if I was going to sing to her prayers tonight.  I didn't miss a beat and said "yes, of course." How precious that she should ask.  What a blessing to be able to hear this gentle question from a child~'will you sing me my bedtime prayers?

The kids love their bedtime ritual and miss it when it doesn't happen.  I sometimes forget that.  There are plenty of nights when bedtime is complete chaos and we can't wait to finish up with them and say a lila tov--a goodnight.  Even tonight, actually, I sent a text to a friend saying it will be nice to put the kids to sleep and have a bit of quiet time.

And now I find myself thinking our bedtime ritual of books~n~prayers provides a great measure of comfort, safety and blessing to the kids.  I am filled with gratitude for being present enough to hear Gabi's quiet, sweet request tonight.  

Shavua Tov~May this be a good week of returning to what really matters!

Elul 4 Turkey-Prince

Many years ago while living in Jerusalem, my friend and teacher Ozer Bergman gave me the book Under the Table and How to Get Up: Jewish Pathways of Spiritual Growth by Avraham Greenbaum.  It begins with the following story which I will offer tonight at our worship service to help us prepare for the Holy Days.

The Story of the Turkey-Prince
Once the king's son went mad.  He thought he was a turkey.  he felt compelled to sit under the table without any clothes on, pulling at bits of bread and bones like a turkey.  None of the doctors could do anything to help him or cure him, and they gave up in despair.  The king was very sad...
Until a wise Man came and said, "I can cure him."  What did the Wise Man do?  He took off all his clothes, and sat down under the table next to the king's son, and also pulled at crumbs and bones.  The Prince asked him, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"And what are you doing here?" he replied.
"I am a turkey," said the Prince,
"Well I'm also a turkey," said the Wise Man.
The two of them sat there together like this for some time, until they were used to one another.
Then the Wise Man gave a sign, and they threw them shirts.  The Wise Man-Turkey said to the king's son,
"Do you think a turkey can't wear a shirt? You can wear a shirt and still be a turkey."  The two of them put on shirts.
After a while he gave another sign and they threw them some trousers.  Again the Wise Man said, "Do you think if you wear trousers you can't be a turkey?"  They put on the trousers.
One by one they put on the rest of their clothes in the same way.
Afterwards, the Wise Man gave a sign and they put down human food from the table.  The Wise Man said to the Prince, "Do you think if you eat good food you can't be a turkey any more?  You can eat this food and still be a turkey."  They ate.
Then he said to him, "Do you think a turkey has to sit under the table? You can be a turkey and sit up at the table."
This was how the Wise Man dealt with the Prince, until in the end he cured him completely.
(Rebbe Nachman of Bratslov)

Avraham Greenbaum concludes:
"The moral of the tale of the Turkey-Prince is that you can succeed, and the story shows you how.
All of us have two sides to us--the Prince or Princess and the turkey.  The Prince is the higher self, or soul--the child of God, which we all are.  The Prince is the potential self, the person we can be if we learn the right way to nurture ourselves and grow....The Turkey is the lower self, the side that is averse to sacrifice, hard work and effort....The Turkey side makes it harder to be the Prince or Princess we should be--and the reward for succeeding is therefore greater."  (pg 1)

We all live in both realities--our true self and the self that covers up our true inner-beauty.  In this period of soul-searching and returning, May we turn inward and notice both God-given realities, may the prince and princess within us shine brightly and allow us to stand tall, with courage and strength so that we might indeed get up from under the table.

May this Shabbos of Elul bring joy, peace and an additional measure of wholeness to us, Israel and all the world.  
Shabbat Shalom.

Elul Day 3 The Soul is Always Praying

Rabbi Bunam, a Hasidic rebbe  who lived over a century ago, taught his followers:  “Our great transgression is not that we commit sins:  Temptation is strong and our strength is weak.  No, our transgression is that at every instant we can turn to God—and yet we do not turn.”   

We always have the chance to turn to God:  To God--the Eternal Power of the universe, to God-that small still voice,  to God-the light buried deep within us waiting to shine forth out into the world.  Elul begs us to quiet down for even just a moment and turn towards The Light.  To quiet the fears, to stop the mind from racing with the to-dos, the struggles, the Thinking!  Turning can come automatically when we quiet down and give ourselves a time-out from it all.  Knowing that the opportunity to Turn is always available to us, reminds me of a teaching of Rabbi Kook's that I learned from my teachers Rabbi Myriam Klotz and Diane Bloomfield.  Rabbi Kook taught  that "the soul is always praying." He wrote: h

Perpetual Prayer of the Soul:

We can only pray the way prayer is supposed to be when we recognize that in fact the soul is always praying.
Without stop, the soul soars and yearns for its Beloved. It is at the time of outward prayer, that the perpetual prayer of the soul reveals itself in the realm of action.
This is prayer's pleasure and joy, its glory and beauty. It is like a rose, opening its elegant petals towards the dew, facing the rays of the sun as they shine over it with the sun's light.
Olat Re'iyah vol.1, p. 11

The "soul is always praying."  When all the chatter stops and we gently quiet ourselves down we can become aware of our breath and of our own blessed existence.  When we are still enough, we can hear our soul-prayers, no matter how soft her voice.  The soul sings of her yearnings, joys, loves, and desires.  She sings out her fears and and shares her hopes and dreams.  She longs to be heard by the One who matters most.  Her prayer-song may even fill us with grace, if we let it.  When we are present enough to remember that our soul is praying, we might catch a glimpse of its--of our-- blessed existence.  When we feel her praying, we are in connection with the divine. We are doing teshuva.