From the Rabbi's Study
Actualizing and Integrating Spirit
July/August 2004

Any element in our highly logogenic liturgy that is non-verbal immediately commands attention.

Logogenic is a word created by one of the first Jewish musicologists, to explain how our liturgy works. Although Curt Sachs furthered the study of how our liturgy sounds, he understood that his work needed to also address the words. Yet those very words can be such a stumbling block. Many who approach Jewish prayer and liturgy, young and old, are intimidated, by the language itself, or by the hard-to-penetrate structures of the services.

Yet we also have a range of modalities and tools that bypass word and languages. The first that comes to mind will be featured this year, on both days of Rosh Hashanah, as well as at the end of Yom Kippur.

The shofar, with its inherent physicality and natural beauty, comes with an arresting sound. We call it forth with words, but the impact comes through its call, which is utterly unlike the type of sound with which we are typically assailed.

Each of us is left to experience, respond to, and resonate with, the calls of the shofar. While the many teachings and midrashim/ commentaries bring important insights and guidance, it is the actual moment - for those calling, those blowing the instrument, and those hearing the blasts - that bears the power of the call. Each call, and each moment, has power, meaning, and potential to act on our spirits. The sound resonates with non-speak-able elements, the deepest layers of teshuvah, and of connection to the Divine.

Any physical movement that takes place in a service also draws our attention. Even as I invite "those who are able" to rise, the energy of a community that moves together, that pays attention to the body in the same moment of prayer, denotes tremendous potential. The communal bowing at the barechu/call to worship; the rising to the toes during the Kedushah; the various - and sometimes mysterious! - bows and steps during the Amidah; these all make us aware that prayer can, and must, be enacted with more than lips and voice.

Last month, we gathered for our first ever Yoga Minyan. We are not the first Jewish community to offer such a program. Synagogues, JCCs, rabbinical schools, and other groups and organizations have been experimenting with forms and tools most often - and erroneously! - associated exclusively with other religious traditions. Our Jewish neighbor in Roland Park, the Bolton Street Synagogue, is offering a course in Jewish meditation this summer, in conjunction with Jewish Family Services. Many teachers and rabbis regularly incorporate moments of silence - and not just during the silent Amidah! - for reflection and integration, whether of study material or heartfelt emotions.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously spoke of feeling as though his feet were praying, as he marched for civil rights. Would that all of our acts of prayer, personal or communal, were accompanied by concomitant actions in realms that need the integration of body and spirit. Our tradition recognizes this need in the Mi Sheberach for healing. It calls for refuat hanefesh/ healing of spirit AND refuat haguf/healing of body. It then furthers the intention towards integration by adding refuah shelemah/ a full healing.

Ken yehi ratzon - so may it be, with all of our prayers, and all of our prayer modalities. May they be full and whole, and fully "voiced." May we remain mindful of, and open to, the many ways of actualizing the life of the spirit, whether verbal, silent, or physical.

Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton