Dear TBZ community:
Last week I was supposed to fly to Los Angeles, and go to an in-person retreat through the Institute of Jewish Spirituality. Instead I spent the last few days at a Jesuit Retreat Center in Gloucester. For the second time due to COVID, the in-person part was cancelled.
I have been a member of this cohort of Jewish clergy since January 2020, when we met for the first, and only time, in person. Since then, we have continued to meet over Zoom, learning and connecting around mindfulness with a hevrutah partner.
When this trip was cancelled, again, and I knew the retreat would once again be on Zoom, I felt I needed to figure out how to be in this retreat somewhere different than on my computer at home. After some research, I found this glorious place, Gonzaga/Eastern Point Retreat House, a place of rare spiritual beauty, an ecumenical ministry of the Society of the Jesuits.
Father Willim Campbel and the other priests and spiritual directors, opened their doors to this rabbi (their first) who was aching to find a place to sit, quietly, and to pray – a place to join my Zoom IJS retreat a few hours a day. And that is what I did, and where I did it, from Sunday night until Thursday morning.
It has been a good week. I enjoyed the beauty of this place by the ocean – the enormous waves and their sounds, the rocks, the seals (lots of them!), the sunrises, the beach, the sky, the cold, even some brave surfers in the icy water. I have spent the week mostly in silence, unless participating in a spiritual direction or other hebrutah in my Zoom program. I slept well, and ate well. I was away from my phone and my email and how liberating that was!! I even spent some time listening to music, without doing anything else! I had forgotten that that was possible.
As I delved into this week’s Torah portion to write my weekly message, I was hoping I would find one verse here or there that would speak to this experience: something about God is in everything or God is in nature and in silence or something about looking inwards into our breath and heart to experience God and then I would say something about practicing mindfulness in our lives and its importance, etc. and how powerful and meaningful it was for me.
Instead, here we are in parshat Mishpatim, perhaps one of the parshiot with the most concrete and direct message about the laws of shaping a just and equitable society. Sefer Hachinuch lists 53 commandments, 23 positives and 30 negatives. Most of them related to building a functional system that is fair and just and has a system of accountability and most of them being Mitzvot Bein Adam Lechavero, commandments between a person and another person. Examples include: Not to afflict any orphan or widow (Exodus 22:21). To lend to the poor and destitute (Exodus 22:24). Not to press someone for payment if you know they don't have it (Exodus 22:27). Judges must not accept testimony unless both parties are present (Exodus 23:1). Judges must not accept bribes (Exodus 23:8). And much more.
What is perhaps so powerful from this week's parasha is that it is still part of last week’s event in Mount Sinai when we received the Ten Commandments and the people of Israel experienced God’s revelation with fire and clouds and silence. It is only after all the “mundane” list of laws are received in this parasha, that we conclude the Sinai experience. We read at the end of parshat Mishpatim:
וַיַּעַל מֹשֶׁה אֶל־הָהָר וַיְכַס הֶעָנָן אֶת־הָהָר. וַיִּשְׁכֹּן כְּבוֹד־יְהֹוָה עַל־הַר סִינַי וַיְכַסֵּהוּ הֶעָנָן שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים וַיִּקְרָא אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִתּוֹךְ הֶעָנָן. וּמַרְאֵה כְּבוֹד יְהֹוָה כְּאֵשׁ אֹכֶלֶת בְּרֹאשׁ הָהָר לְעֵינֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה בְּתוֹךְ הֶעָנָן וַיַּעַל אֶל־הָהָר וַיְהִי מֹשֶׁה בָּהָר אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם וְאַרְבָּעִים לָיְלָה.
When Moses had ascended the mountain, the cloud covered the mountain. The Presence of the LORD abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days. On the seventh day God called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. Now the Presence of the LORD appeared in the sight of the Israelites as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. Moses went inside the cloud and ascended the mountain; and Moses remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
(Exodus 24:15-18)
Parshat Mishpatim is an intrinsic part of the Sinai revelation of God to God’s people.
Many of the laws that we find in this weekly portion are further learned, discussed, and explained in the Seder (Order) of Nezikin in the Mishnah and Talmud. Nezikin (Damages) deals largely with Jewish criminal and civil law and the Jewish court system.
In Bava Kamma (one of the Tractates of Nezikin) Rabbi Yehudah asks what makes a person a pious one (Chasid):
אמר רב יהודה האי מאן דבעי למהוי חסידא לקיים מילי דנזיקין
Rav Yehuda says: One who wants to be pious should observe the matters of Nezikin
Bava Kamma 30a
A Chasid, a pious person (which is different from how we use the word today of chasid, speaking about a specific group of people in the Jewish community) explains Rav Yehuda, is someone who observes and learns and pays attention to the teachings of Nezikin, of our tradition’s teachings about how we deal with the ways we act in the world in the most concrete and tangible situations. What do we do when we unintentionally or intentionally damage the property or the animal of our neighbor? What if we break something that doesn't belong to us? What does Torah have to say when we don't pay wages on time, or when we take advantage of the most needy in our society? What kind of systems - mundane systems - must we have in place in order to build a society which is functional, fair, and just? A pious person, or perhaps in the language I would use, a religious or a spiritual person, is one that concerns themselves with the mundane and who recognizes that the sacred and the mundane do not exist in different realms.
If you know me, you know that during my few days at Eastern Point I spent time in their library and learned more about Ignatian spirituality. I have to say that in my reading, and in being with people who like me are on a journey of seeking God in all moments and all things, I felt at home.
The following are a couple of paragraphs from one of the books I perused:
“If asked to define Ignatian spirituality, the first thing out of their mouths would most likely be finding God in all things.”
That deceptively simple Phrase was once considered revolutionary. It means that nothing is considered outside the purview of the spiritual life. Ignatian spirituality is not confined within the walls of a church. It's not a spirituality that considers only religious topics, like prayer and sacred texts, as part of a person's spiritual life.
Most of all, it's not a spirituality that says, ‘Well, that – whether it's work, money, sexuality, depression, sickness – is something to avoid when talking about the spiritual life.
Ignatian spirituality considers everything an important element of your life. That includes religious services, sacred Scriptures, prayer, and charitable works, to be sure, but it also includes friends, family, work, relationships, sex, suffering, and joy, as well as Nature, music, and pop culture”
The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.
A Spirituality for Real Life by James Martin, SJ.
I would then say:
In the words Isaiah 6:3:
מְלֹא כׇל־הָאָרֶץ כְּבוֹדוֹ
God’s presence fills all the earth
And in the words of the Zohar (Tikkunei HaZohar 122):
לית אתר פנוי מיניה
there is no place devoid of the Presence
Many times people introduce themselves to me, or introduce a conversation topic with “I am not religious” or “I am spiritual, but not religious” or “I am not religious nor spiritual.” Being religious or living a spiritual life is not about one kind of mitzvot, commandments, that we follow, or about how much we meditate or how much time we spend journaling or admiring nature. Rather, it is about living mindfully at all moments with the teachings of God and in the presence of the Divine, who guides us to live a life of compassion and of love, for ourselves and for all creation.
Our religiosity manifests both at the market place, when doing business and at the house of study, when learning Torah.
Our spirituality manifests when we have a chance to spend days quietly but also, hopefully and much harder in my view, when we have the most busy and complicated and full of commitments kind of day with lots of meetings that potentially can bring up the worst in us and where it seems there is no room for God’s presence.
Our religious commitment manifests in the choices we make for our own lives.
Yes, in prayer and Shabbat, but also in how we fight for a world that is just, how we stand against injustice, how we ensure that the powerful don't dominate the weak, how we create fair and just systems so that not only I can live well, but all creatures of God can.
That is the challenge, that is the call.
I felt a sense of incredible hope this week as I spent my days in a place where so many people come on their journey to seek God’s presence. Here at the retreat center, people from all over the country come for eight or thirty day spiritual retreats, to practice what is known as the Ignatian Exercise. In my IJS retreat, Jewish clergy from all over the country have been coming together to practice mindfulness and grapple with our own journeys, as seekers and as leaders of our communities, helping others to find their religious path. To witness people in search of God gave me hope. Maybe the goodness of so many seekers in the world can help us heal the broken-hearted and all that is broken around us. And then, Mishpatim came as a reminder of the manifestation of God in all things, in our actions, in our relationship, in our laws, in our justice systems, in the ways we relate to each other, in the ways our societies are built, in our acts of loving kindness and justice, in the ways we show up for each other, in the ways we see the humanity of each and every one.
I end with a quote of Tich Nhat Hahn, prominent Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist, leading voice in opposition to the Vietnam war and the founder of Plum Village who passed away last weekend. May his memory be a blessing and an inspiration.
“To meditate means to go home to yourself.
Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you,
and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you”
May we have the capacity to go home to ourselves, so we can take care of our inner life and as we do that, be able ro care for our broken world.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing.
May we have a joyful and restful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom,
