HAPPY NEW YEAR
I hope you had a meaningful Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur experience. The ten days of awe invite reflection and finding balance for the new year. Yom Kippur is the day that time becomes God. It is an intimate time with the Beloved on High.
YOM KIPPUR, FASTING, AND PLENUM
ENERGY CONSERVATION MODE
Torah gives direction for Yom Kippur somatic Observance twice. First in Lev 16:29 ועִנִּיתֶ֖ם אֶת־נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶ֑ם and again Lev 16:31 “תּעַנּ֣וּ אֶת־נַפְשֹֽׁתֵיכֶ֗ם”. It is translated as “You must fast, or you will fast. A closer look at these words offers a more subtle understanding.
ועִנִּיתֶ֖ם and תּעַנּ֣וּ share a root in the word impoverished. Interestingly, it also shares a root with “answer.” What can we learn from this? Feeling impoverished creates a need to learn something new.
If true, what can we learn about fasting on Yom Kippur? I notice that the Yom Kippur fast and devotion induce a prana conservative state in my being. The practical aspects of the body are put on pause for a full day. The “work a day,” productive, “fetch wood and carry water” mode is paused. Spiritual practice, the intentions, and the day itself serve to elevate. And expand awareness. The fast takes the experience to a new level of potency. The body is not expending energy digesting or even looking for food, and a different way of being is cultivated. Channels of awareness not typically accessed are opened. A new sense of abundance and connectivity emerges.
Celebrating abundance is an aspect of Shabbat.
Moving into abundance is an aspect of the weekly Shabbat celebration. It is a foundational Jewish value. On Yom Kippur, the Shabbat of Shabbats, spiritual intimacy is heightened exponentially by opening usually dormant channels. The physical becomes less demanding and allows the soul in the body to move into deeper intimacy with Source. Physical resources are not diverted to digestion and become available to amplify Spiritual Experience. It is like the Shabbat experience of moving into abundance and amplified exponentially. Fasting is a tool that can open portals to deeper intimacy with Source. (May it be The Will, and may it happen again and again for us all.)
“On Yom Kippur, time becomes God.”
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi zt”l
Yom Kippur can be a taste of Paradise. The spiritual plenum is open. One way to discern if the community gathered has entered this plenum most clearly is at the end of Neilah (final prayer service). It happened this year again. Eating was not the highest priority after the shofar blasted. More joy! Barukh Hashem!
Register Here For Sukkot Sunday
THE ROARING LION
The Holy Rebbe Bnai Yisaskhar considers:
אַרְיֵה שָׁאָג, מִי לֹא יִירָא
(As the) Lion roars, who is not in awe?
(אַרְיֵה ARYeH translates as Lion in Hebrew)
Amos 3:8
What is ARYeH? Each letter stands for the sequence in this annual awesome arc of time. Aleph stands for Elul, Reysh for Rosh Hashanah, Yud for Yom Kippur, and the final heh for Hoshanah Rabbah (the last day of Sukkot). This highlights the fact that the festival continues. The gates remain open.
On Yom Kippur, the world is renewed. The four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot re-establish connectivity. How? Each day, a single letter of the new fresh Name for this year comes in. The first day is the yud, the second day brings heh, the third day gives vav, and the fourth day brings the final, heh. The local cosmos is plugged into these fresh, clean channels to the heavens. Now, the connection is ready for the full moon of Sukkot.
If Yom Kippur models death, then sukkot is the holiday CELEBRATING ETERNAL life.
Each of Sukkot’s seven days (eight in the diaspora) carries a Divine attribute. It provides an opportunity to consider and cultivate the quality for your life’s needs. They track the seven lower S’frot – 1) Hesed – Grace; 2) G’vurah -Containment; 3) Tiferet – Balance and Harmony; 4) Netzah – Tenacity, Sustainability; 5) Hod – Deep Refinement (like a priestess or prophetess), 6) Yesod – Intimacy and Community, 7) Sovereignty – Sh’khinah.
We get to wave the lulav and etrog to bless the six directions of our space-time continuum. There has never been a better time to honor our Earth.
The holiday time is in full swing come the full moon of Sukkot this Friday. I hope we get to share some of this sacred time.
COME TO OUR SUKKAH PARTY – FOR MORE JOY
The best part of the New Year of this festival season is yet to come.
Sukkot is a shining example of Earth-based Jewish practices. It is a celebration and prayer for our beautiful home planet. More joy, and who doesn’t need some of that? You are invited to Celebrate Sukkot on Sunday, October 1. Participate in the Jewish Shamani method of blessing the six edges of our Space-Time Continuum; pray for just the right amount of rain. Welcome the ancestors—set intentions for the following year.
Join us for lunch and Torah study (1:30 PM) in a Sukkah overlooking the great Pacific. RSVP is necessary. Join us in the mystery of Divine Union that is the Sukkah.
We can’t wait to share this sacred celebration with you. The time for joy is now. Let’s bring it on!
Register Here For Sukkot Sunday
