A REFLECTION, AN INVITATION AND AN ADAR ALERT
(don't say you weren't forewarned)
From the February 2002 Beit Tikvah Newsletter

Mix a pleasant camp site, thirty-plus rabbinic colleagues from across the liberal spectrum, great teachers along with a warm and supportive administrative presence, and you would expect to get a lovely . .|. conference, say, a professional net-working bonanza, or an intensive working session on a key communal project.

My six days at "camp" in January could indeed have fit that description, but would be deeply inaccurate and highly misleading at the same time. With (the larger) half of each day spent in silence, and the rest in highly structured sessions of study and reflection, the atmosphere of this Rabbinic Spirituality Institute could not have been more remote from the typical conference or meeting.

The goal - to provide working rabbis with a significant opportunity to attend to, and deepen, our spiritual practice; the method - four retreats over a two year period, time away that purposefully excludes external stimuli, including what we might think of as its benign forms such as pleasurable reading or
listening, all bridged by ongoing study with assigned hevruta/ study partners, including guidance from our masterful master teachers.

If this evokes a longing in you for some similar time away, or, at minimum, a wee opportunity to carve out some space for yourself to reflect on your spiritual journey, I'm eager to know about it. It's time for us at Beit Tikvah to take on - in addition to all that we do at services, in classes, in community activities, and in may other ways - more in-depth challenges for spiritual growth and exploration.

We - contemporary, post-modern Jews - have long been afraid of the S-word. It's one thing to declare a distaste for "organized religion" (to which I am won't reply, "You won't have to be too worried about this by us . . ."). Serious seekers of all paths understand, however, that the challenge is not related to the qualities associated with the path, such as, traditional, orthodox, eclectic, or contemplative. Rabbi Menahem Mendel of Kotsk, when asked what Hasidism was all about, replied: "Artbetn oyf zikh - to work on oneself."
We should all be such Hasids - through personal, family and community-centered efforts. Together, let us read inspired works, write of our spiritual journeys, study commentaries and instructional literature, sit in silence, sing in joy or - - - - you fill in the blanks.

Less distracted by the noise of the world, and eager to discern paths by which I could "bring back" my experience, I "heard" these guided meditations upon returning from my retreat. I trust that they will serve to guide your own spiritual practice during the coming month of Adar.

A Guided Mediation for the Amidah

Listen to the instructions from the rabbi. Be with your confusion about which pages to follow. Remain standing and pretend to be engaged in deep reflection on words whose meaning escapes you. Even in English. Get fidgety. Try not to be the first one seated, nor to take your seat in the mad rush to imitate the rabbi, who has finally sat down, thanks be to God. Wait patiently for the last pious slowpoke.

A Guided Mediation for the Aleynu

Roll your eyes as you stand for the umpteenth time in the service. Roll your eyes as you hear the instruction to stand if you are able for the umpteenth time. Ignore the rumbling in your stomach as you anticipate the oneg from the best oneg family in the congregation. Observe your inner judgmental voice as it criticizes all of the other shlepper oneg providers. Remove all extraneous thoughts from your mind, even as extraneous announcements are rolling past your outer ear, particularly those that repeat every last detail from the newsletter.